An update has been made to public activity restrictions in South Australia.
The Emergency Management (Cross Border Travel No 9) (COVID-19) Direction 2020 has been revoked and replaced by the Emergency Management (Cross Border Travel No 10) (COVID-19) Direction 2020. This new Direction comes into effect as of 0001 Wednesday 29 July 2020.
The new Direction provides an update to the restrictions currently in place for cross border travellers into and out of South Australia.
The direction now prevents the non-essential travel from Victoria into South Australian including South Australian residence returning to South Australia from Victoria. An exception exists for a person escaping or dealing with circumstances arising from domestic violence or providing support to a family member who is experiencing domestic violence.
The requirement for COVID-19 testing has expanded to include all classes of Essential Travellers
Essential travellers of the class – Commercial Transport and Freight – general and Victorian Residence, Remote and Isolated workers; or Cross border community members must now produce evidence to an authorised officer of a COVID-19 test, or a COVID-19 test result of evidence that a COVID-19 test has been undertaken in the preceding 7 days.
Essential travellers who are passing through are not required to submit to a COVID-19 test.
There have been changes to some of the categories of Essential traveller including:
- Cross border community members where people residing outside 50 km from the border in NSW and 40 km from the border in Victoria are no longer considered to be a cross border community member.
- Emergency services workers must now have approval from SA Health to move across the border (NSW or Vic), unless they are on duty and it is in the conduct of those duties. On duty does not mean travelling to and from work.
- Compassionate grounds requires travellers from Victoria to have approval from SA Health and where they proposed to visit a health care, disability care or residential care facility the relevant facility is aware of the proposed visit.
- Specialist workers in essential sectors has been introduced to permit individual specialist worker required for the maintenance of operations in such sectors as mining, oil, gas, energy, water, agriculture, or other primary industries or telecommunications. This class of essential traveller also includes Seasonal workers (eg forestry workers, fruit pickers or shearers). Strick conditions apply to both travellers into and out of SA.
- Passing through no longer applies to travellers from Victoria. Travellers from NSW and ACT must be able to demonstrate that they have permission to enter their destination and have not travelled in Victoria for the 14 days preceding entering SA.
It is acknowledged that many restrictions still apply, but they are critical in dealing with the spread of COVID-19.
All existing directions, frequently asked questions and other information can be found here: https://www.covid-19.sa.gov.au/emergency-declarations
If you require further information you can call the SA COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787 between the hours of 9am to 5pm 7 days per week or go to the SA Health website at www.sahealth.sa.gov.au or www.sa.gov.au/covid-19
