South Australia eases border restrictions for ACT travellers

Australia, board and police station on border between South Australia and New South Wales on Barrier highway

By Christian Fleetwood

South Australia has eased its coronavirus-related border requirements to residents from the Australian Capital Territory.

The decision to ease restrictions, allowing ACT residents to enter SA without having to undergo 14 days of quarantine, came into effect from midnight after the state’s Transition Committee met on Tuesday to discuss the issue of border controls.

Travellers arriving from the ACT will now have to complete an online pre-approval and must declare they have not been in either NSW and Victoria (SA’s two restricted states) in the 14 days before they arrive.

The meeting of the Transition Committee also centred around easing restrictions for NSW residents. However, no decision has yet been made on lifting the quarantine requirements for the state.

Travellers from the ACT, which has not recorded a confirmed coronavirus case since 10 July, will be required to fly directly to SA without transiting through NSW first.

According to the Australian Associated Press (AAP), SA health officials continue to have concerns over community transmission of the coronavirus in NSW.

South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said that there would ideally need to be no community transmission in the state for at least 14 days for SA to relax border restrictions with NSW.

“My advice from Health is that [NSW authorities] are doing an exceptional job with contact tracing and they are confident that the situation will improve there to the point that we can lift that 14-day quarantine,” Commissioner Stevens said.

“[However], it is an open-ended timeframe, because New South Wales is continuing to identify isolated cases of community transmission.

“We want to see a better situation in terms of community transmission before we relax the restrictions on New South Wales.”

According to reports, Commissioner Stevens said he remained “optimistic” about NSW’s prospects of eliminating community transmission sooner rather than later.

The latest border changes mean that people can now travel to SA from all states and territories, except NSW and Victoria.

Featured image source: iStock/fotofritz16

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act Australian Capital Territory Border restrictions domestic travel new south wales nsw south australia Steven Marshall