From midnight 31January 2021, South Australia will ease restrictions on travellers arriving to South Australia from Greater Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong in response to the absence of any recent community transmissions of the COVID-19 virus in New South Wales.

The South Australian Transition team decided that travellers from these former hot spots will no longer have to undergo a mandatory 14 days of quarantine after their arrival. Anyone arriving from Greater Sydney, Central Coast and Wollongong from midnight Sunday will be required to undertake COVID-19 testing on days 1, 5 and 12 and self-isolate from arrival until the day 1 test results confirm a negative result.

Any travellers from Greater Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong currently in quarantine in South Australia will also be subject to the same eased restrictions as people arriving after midnight Sunday.

These changes end the hard-border arrangement put in place by South Australia since New Year’s Day in response to several clusters emerging in New South Wales. The new testing regime is the only remaining cross-border restriction on travellers entering South Australia from another state or territory.

The decision is subject to no further outbreaks in New South Wales before the new direction comes into force on Sunday.

Exemptions for essential travel for the key mining, oil, gas and energy industries remain in place. However, companies are advised to maintain their own control measures to prevent any risk of the virus emerging in their workplaces. Businesses should also continue to monitor news from other jurisdictions and the South Australian Transition committee as recent events in New Zealand have again demonstrated that this is a dynamic environment with new outbreaks an ever present risk.

The changed restrictions will be available soon on the South Australian Government’s Cross-Border Directions web page as Emergency Management (Cross Border Travel No 31) (COVID-19) Direction 2020. DEM will also continue to monitor announcements for any future changes to the cross-border travel arrangements and provide industry with any necessary updates.

Should you have any questions, please contact Martin.Reid@sa.gov.au at the Department for Energy and Mining.

Stay well,

Paul Heithersay
Chief Executive
Department for Energy and Mining

Friday 29 January 2021

The information contained in this resources and energy industry update has been verified by the South Australian Government COVID-19 Public Information Function Support Group coordinated by SA Police.

Previous COVID-19 updates for South Australia's resources sector