Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier this afternoon revealed a young girl with no symptoms had tested positive after travelling with her family by car from Nhill in Victoria to visit relatives in SA.

Spurrier said the girl, her mother and a sibling have since returned to Victoria to isolate at home.

The child’s vaccinated grandparents, who the family was visiting in SA, are now in quarantine.

“It’s not unexpected we have a case of COVID here in our state,” Spurrier said.

“This is not something to be alarmed about.”

Spurrier said the girl was tested at Tailem Bend on her way over, after the mother received an SMS from the Victorian health department advising the girl was a contact of a case.

“We had that result this morning suggesting that this little one is the early stages of an infection,” Spurrier said.

“Obviously because she’s a (young) child she was not able to be vaccinated but all the adult contacts are fully vaccinated.

“She didn’t have any symptoms, she’s probably feeling fine, probably a little bit sad she didn’t get any kisses and cuddles (with her grandparents).”

Spurrier said contact tracers had since assessed any risk from “toilet breaks” on the way over but did not believe the public had been exposed.

She did not consider the case to be community transmission in SA.

She said authorities were now seeking information from Victoria about where the girl might have picked up the virus.

It follows a case revealed this morning, in another Victorian traveller, which authorities say is only “viral shedding” because the person had tested positive some weeks ago in Victoria.

Authorities say that person is not contagious and won’t be counted in our cases here.

“It’s of no risk here to our community,” Spurrier said.

Marshall had earlier told reporters in a press conference just before 1pm that he had just been informed of a new positive case in SA, but did not have further details – which he said would be provided by SA Health later today.

“You can’t keep this disease out,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do though is bring it in on our own terms.

“It would be almost like saying we want to stamp out the common cold in SA … it can’t be done [but] what we’ve got to do is make sure we maximise our protection in SA, by getting our vaccination rate up as high as possible.”

Spurrier said 79 per cent of people aged 16 and over in SA were now vaccinated.

The vaccine has not yet been approved in Australia for children under 12.

Spurrier said once it was approved, she would be “absolutely recommending vaccination for 5 to 12 year olds”.

Spurrier said she was “most concerned” about young children with underlying health conditions.

Nearly 7000 COVID tests were done in SA yesterday.