Chief public health officer insists it was not a mistake to allow British woman who became SA’s first coronavirus case in almost three weeks to enter SASA’s chief public health officer insists it was not a mistake to let a British woman – who became our first coronavirus case in almost three weeks – enter the state, with authorities now confident she only had close contact with “a small number” of people.
Andrew Hough, Brad Crouch, The Advertiser
May 27, 2020 8:58am
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It includes a video of SHY giving her views on something - want me to post that? Professor Spurrier was asked on ABC Radio this morning if authorities erred in letting the woman, in her 50s, come into SA to visit a dying relative in Adelaide. “No I don’t think so,” she said.
“Just to put this into absolute perspective, we get quite a lot of requests for exemptions, particularly from people coming interstate (and) we have a smaller number of requests for exemptions coming from overseas…but we do look at all of them very very carefully.
“None of those people are exempt from quarantine.”
SA Health yesterday announced the number of total local virus cases rose to 440, after 18 consecutive days of no reported patients.
Despite having served less than half of her required isolation in a Melbourne hotel after arriving from Britain last week, SA and Victorian authorities authorised her weekend flight to Adelaide on “compassionate” grounds to say goodbye to a dying relative.
The woman was tested in Victoria, three days after she arrived in the state, in line with their policy, and the result came back negative. She was then tested again upon arrival in Adelaide on Sunday and the result came back positive on Monday.
She has had a police escort while in the state.
But as she remained in a stable condition with mild symptoms in quarantine at an Adelaide hotel last night, authorities were initially scrambling to trace what they thought was a “significant” number of “close contacts” including passengers, airline and airport staff as well as other visitors.
However, Professor Spurrier this morning said authorities now believed there were “quite a small number” of close contacts.
“We thought there might have been a significant number of …close contact but actually because we work very closely with SAPOL and we use as many different technologies as we can, we’ve been able to reduce the number of close contacts,” she said.
SA Health yesterday refused to publicly release fight details or provide precise numbers of those in isolation.
Professor Spurrier explained why this was this morning.
She said previously authorities were unable to quickly access flight manifests so they could advise those who had close contact with an infected person so they would release the flight number so those on board could come forward.
However, Professor Spurrier said they were now able to access the manifests quickly so they did not need to release the flight number.
She said those considered to be in “close contact” with an infected passenger were those seated on either side of them and people two rows in front and two behind them.
Professor Spurrier was also asked if the new case sets back the easing of restrictions in SA.
“I think we have to be realistic in Australia,” she said.
“I think we all want to start moving around our beautiful country at some stage when we’re all feeling comfortable and we feel safe and we’re monitoring the situation in other states everyday.
“But we have to be realistic and there is always going to be COVID-19 in the world.”
Professor Spurrier said the “only way can continue to (lift restrictions) is if every single one of us continue to do the social distancing, continue to do the hygiene and continue to get tested even if we have a mild cold”.
“So we will have to change our behaviours and we will have to keep doing that,” she said.
“We can go to the restaurants. We’ll be able to go to the cinema. We’ll be able to do the things we enjoy however the only way we can do that is if we continue those other basic behaviours.”
Professor Spurrier also revealed that SA Health was never able to establish the cause of the Adelaide baggage handlers cluster of cases.
Thirteen baggage handlers tested positive to COVID-19 in early April.
“We never were able to get exactly the reason for the baggage handlers becoming a case at the Adelaide Airport, even though we did a lot of investigation, so we’re not sure whether that was actually on a piece of baggage or it was from close contact when we had quite a few international visitors at that stage,” she said.
Yesterday, Professor Spurrier announced a review into how a committee grants exemptions and a new crackdown.
There have been 91,597 tests conducted.
Defending a delay in announcing the new case, she said the woman posed no public threat after her positive result on Monday. “I know this might come as a surprise to many people because we have had so many days with no cases,” she said. “But it is a very timely reminder to everybody … that COVID-19 is here and we have to continue to be vigilant. This experience now really strengthens our resolve to minimise the number of exemptions. I don’t want to go backwards. There is always a risk involved in any decision.
“However, no matter what we do as a government, no matter what industry does, every single South Australian has to continue to heed these messages. It is a mutual obligation and we all have to work on it together.”
SA Police enforces quarantine rules including border and compliance checks but a spokesman could not provide data on exemption breakdowns: “Travellers into South Australia are deemed to be either essential travellers or non-essential … and subject to self-quarantine for 14 days.”
The state has had no known active cases of COVID-19 since May 15 and no new daily patients since May 7.
The last person to test positive in SA was a 70-year-old man who had emigrated from the United Kingdom to rejoin his wife, who was already living locally, and was found to be carrying coronavirus on May 8 after experiencing loss of taste, smell and hearing.
The new case, the first in 19 days, emerged as the State Government unveiled a new health learning precinct at TAFE SA’s city campus.
Officials said nursing was one of several priority courses to restart practical training on campus, before a majority of classes return next week.
The government spent $1.8 million upgrading classrooms of the Currie Street campus to form two clinical skills labs with 16 nursing beds.
After moving from Port Adelaide, the new hub also has an area for aged care training and a simulated health clinic for pathology collection.
The nursing clinical area includes mannequins and has been built to replicate a hospital and industry environment, the government said.
It also includes new hair and beauty training areas and complementary health training spaces.