South Australia to ease strict border restrictions

Authorities in South Australia (SA) on Monday said the state was “ready to move” to ease its strict Covid-19 border restrictions “within days”.

Under current restrictions, anyone who enters SA from New South Wales (NSW) or the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) must quarantine for 14 days while travellers from Victoria are banned, reports Xinhua news agency.

Grant Stevens, the commissioner of SA Police and the state’s Covid-19 coordinator, said that authorities were “really hopeful we can relax border restrictions” to NSW and the ACT and be more “liberal” with travel exemptions for Victoria residents.

“It means a lot to people to be able to travel into and out of those two locations, so we’re watching really closely,” said Stevens.

“We’re hopeful, the way the NSW government particularly is dealing with the current numbers they have, continues the way it is.

“It could be days (for borders to reopen) but it is really dependent upon what happens there,” he added.

Stevens said that Victoria’s success in fighting its second wave of Covid-19 infections gave authorities “the latitude to more actively consider exemptions” but warned against letting “optimism cloud our understanding of the actual circumstances as they are today”.

“The reality is we still face a risk of Covid-19 finding its way into our community and we need to be ready to respond if that does occur,” he said.

As of Monday, SA has reported a total of 464 coronavirus cases and four deaths.