South Australia has eased its hard border closure with Western Australia but will keep COVID-19 restrictions in place for people coming from the Greater Perth region.
Effectively immediately, anyone travelling from regional WA will be allowed to enter SA, and those who arrived since Australia Day will be allowed to leave quarantine.
However, they will all need to get tested three times for the virus – on days one, five and 12, and must isolate until they get their first negative result.
They will be allowed to transition through Perth Airport but must not have visited the WA lockdown areas – Perth, the Peel region and the South West – since January 26.
Anyone seeking to travel from WA’s lockdown zones will not be allowed into SA unless they are a returning resident or have secured an exemption.
They will still need to quarantine at home for 14 days and be subject to testing.
SA’s hard border closure with WA was imposed late on Sunday night after details of a positive case involving a security guard in Perth first emerged.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said SA decided to go hard early because of a lack of detailed information about the situation coming from WA.
He said the changes on Tuesday related to the flow of more information.
“It’s about the information we’re being provided and what we have access to from Western Australia,” he said.
“Monitoring their activity, the level of testing they’re undertaking, how they’re managing the contact tracing.
“At this stage, we’re comfortable that we can constrict our level of restrictions to the greater Perth area.”
Mr Stevens said the transition committee on Tuesday had also resolved to remove all measures for people travelling from Greater Sydney from later this month.
Those arrivals do not need to quarantine but are currently required to be tested three times for the virus.
That requirement will be dropped from February 13.
SA’s transition committee will meet again on Friday to review the WA measures again.