South Australia to shut border with Greater Melbourne as COVID-19 cluster grows

South Australia will close its border for any travellers from Greater Melbourne from 6pm on Wednesday as a COVID-19 cluster of cases there continues to grow.

With 15 confirmed infections, SA will only allow essential workers and returning South Australians to cross the border but they must get three virus tests and isolate for 14 days.

Anybody from Greater Melbourne who travelled to SA in recent days must also get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.

“Our thoughts are with everybody in Melbourne. Any outbreak is something we need to take extraordinarily serious,” Premier Steven Marshall said.

Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said the information coming from Victoria was very concerning considering the large number of exposure sites across Melbourne.

She said three South Australians had also been identified as close contacts of a confirmed case in someone who attended the Port Adelaide and Collingwood AFL game at the MCG last weekend.

They have been asked to isolate, with one of those three still in Melbourne.

More than 400 other South Australians had been identified as being at the ground and are being considered to be “tier two” contacts.

With the Melbourne outbreak thought to have been sparked from a case involving a Victorian man who contracted the virus while in hotel quarantine in Adelaide, SA officials also released a report on Wednesday into how that infection occurred.

Professor Spurrier said the report showed that transmission had occurred between two rooms at the end of a corridor, suggesting there was less transfer of air.

“When staff looked at the CCTV footage, there were two occasions when the case that was infectious where he had opened his door to get food to get delivered,” she said.

A short time later, the Victorian man had also opened his door.

Recommendations in the report included reducing the number of times doors are opened and trying to stagger when doors are opened.