Up to 50 people will be able to gather at people’s homes, masks in public won’t be encouraged and stand-up drinking will return to pubs and bars under a raft of revised restrictions to kick in from Monday, as authorities eye a return to normality early in the new year.
SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens has overruled the advice of chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier to immediately relax density caps on hospitality venues to one person per two-square-metres, as the state today recorded its sixth straight day of no new coronavirus cases.
SA Health will transfer all coronavirus-infected people isolating in CBD medi-hotels to a designated, police-guarded quarantine facility, while overseas travellers will be required to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding flights to South Australia, under a new eight-point plan to install more “shields” between the quarantine system and community.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced SA Police to spend an unbudgeted $10.9 million in the past three months while up to 550 sworn officers have been redirected from their usual policing duties to respond solely to COVID-19, Commissioner Grant Stevens says.