South Australia has recorded its first new COVID-19 cases in 12 days as the state prepares to reopen its border to New South Wales.
The two new infections are both returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
The cases are a man and woman who are sharing the same room.
They arrived on Sunday September 20 on Qatar flight QR194.
One close contact, a young child who travelled with them, remains in quarantine with the couple.
Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier says the cases pose no risk to the general public.
“These are not cases that I’m personally too concerned about,” she said.
The state’s total number of coronavirus cases is now 468.
Last week, Premier Steven Marshall announced South Australia would be taking up to 800 international arrivals per week as the state increases its hotel quarantine cap.
Of those, 600 will be repatriated citizens.
The state’s border is also set to reopen to New South Wales for the first time in six months.
From 12.01am Thursday, people entering South Australia from the eastern state will no longer be required to self-isolate for 14 days.
However, some requirements will remain in place with regard to documentation.
Travellers will be required to fill out an online pre-approval and declare they have not been outside the ‘safe community transmission zone’ within 14 days of entering South Australia.
Marshall says the decision to reopen will be a relief for businesses and families in both states.
Fears had been raised about a concerning locally-acquired case in a taxi driver who spent nine days working in Sydney while infectious.
But Spurrier says she is “confident” there has been an appropriate amount of time without community transmission in NSW.
“We do need to be patient with this disease… but with the restrictions in New South Wales and their extremely good contact tracing, they’ve been able to get on top of those clusters,” she said.
“I’m very confident that (taxi driver) is not representative of community transmission.”
Six new cases were recorded in NSW on Wednesday but all were returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
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