A Covid-19 cluster in the Australian state of South Australia has grown to 17 cases, all believed to be linked to a leak from the state’s hotel quarantine system, according to health authorities.
This the first local outbreak in South Australia since April, when the state introduced a hard border policy. Currently 600 passengers are permitted to arrive on international flights in state capital Adelaide each week, but they must undergo a 14-day quarantine in a designated hotel.
On Sunday, Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said that the "medi-hotel" where one infected person worked is where "we're considering the source to be."
Multiple schools and a fast food restaurant in Adelaide have been closed, and contact tracing is underway.
"It is a very, very dangerous situation we’re in, in South Australia at the moment,” the state's Premier Steven Marshall said. “It's really going to require the cooperation of every single citizen for us to get on top of it."
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said Monday that South Australia should not reinstate a hard border as a reaction to the outbreak.
"Having these strong testing, tracing and isolation systems are absolutely critical and South Australia, on all the evidence, does have exactly that," he said.
The states of Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory now require arrivals from South Australia to undergo mandatory 14-day self-quarantine.