South Australians who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are to be subject to reduced quarantine periods from tomorrow (23 November) under new testing and quarantine requirements.
Announced by Premier Steven Marshall, fully vaccinated South Australians identified as close contacts of a COVID-positive case will only need to quarantine for seven days, while unvaccinated people will need to quarantine for the full 14 days.
Mr Marshall said updated testing and quarantine requirements also redefined who was classified as a close and casual contact, with fully vaccinated casual contacts only isolating until they received their first negative test result.
“Achieving high vaccination rates is a key part of our strong plan to be COVID-ready and South Australia’s pandemic control going forward,” Mr Marshall said.
“As we safely transition into the next phase of our COVID-ready plan, we have also made 392 extra beds and treatment spaces available and are recruiting up to 1920 doctors, nurses, ambulance officers and health staff so you will always be able to get the care you need, when you need it,” he said.
Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Stephen Wade said the vaccine reduced the risk of both spreading and catching the disease, which allowed for the lighter requirements on vaccinated people who were determined to be a close or casual contact.
Chief Public Health Officer, Nicola Spurrier said testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine would continue to play a very significant role when borders opened and “we have COVID in our State”.
Professor Spurrier said contact tracing teams would continue to contact people who had come into contact with a COVID-19 case to inform them whether they were a close or casual contact and what was expected of them.
Further information on quarantine requirements case can be accessed at this PS News link.
