‘Very low’ QR code check-in numbers ‘disappointing’ as remote SA exposure sites named

Eight new tier 1 COVID-19 exposure sites have been named by SA Health in connection with two infected truck drivers who visited South Australia from NSW twice in a week. 

No new coronavirus cases were reported in the state on Sunday.

The truck drivers’ first trip involved travelling to Nundroo from NSW and swapping trucks with a West Australian crew on August 21. On their second trip they went all they way through to Perth, passing through South Australia on Wednesday night.

South Australian Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said the truck driver who returned a strong positive result after a test on Tuesday could have been infectious as early as August 21 — three days before his swab.

“We’re very hopeful he would have had a very low infectiousness at that stage, but as an abundance of caution we’ve put up those exposure sites,” she said.

One of the locations they stopped at on their first trip — Nundroo Roadhouse — is close to the Yalata Aboriginal community on the eastern approach to the Nullarbor Plain.

The Maralinga Tjarutja Lands, which includes the farther inland community of Oak Valley, have now been closed to the general public because of the risk if coronavirus takes hold in the communities.

The seven other exposure sites are in Ceduna and Port Augusta.

Thirty-nine people have been identified as contacts, including 10 workers from the Ceduna and Port Augusta exposure sites.

Nine of the close contacts are part-time Metropolitan Fire Service firefighters based in Port Augusta, who will be replaced with staff from other stations while isolating.

Only three people used QR codes to check in at the sites at the same time as the truck drivers.

Professor Spurrier said the “very low” number was “pretty disappointing”.

Sixteen people at the Port Augusta OTR petrol station failed to check-in during the exposure site times, she said.

“That is a concern for us because we have not been able to contact them, require the testing and have them in quarantine, and it’s concerning for those individuals themselves but also their families and anyone else they may come into contact with,” she said.

About 2 million check-ins have been recorded each day since the end of the July lockdown, according to South Australian government data. 

Anyone who visited the exposure locations at the specified date and time should get tested immediately and quarantine, along with their household contacts, for 14 days since visiting the location, and get tested again on day five and day 13.

“We’re asking people to review their own movements around these exposure sites in South Australia, and if they were in there at the same time that these two truck drivers were there we really want to speak to you, we want to get you tested as quickly as possible,” Premier Steven Marshall said.

Calls for people to monitor for symptoms

The new sites revealed late last night are all for times a week before the last tranche of sites revealed on Friday night.

Friday’s sites included two each in Ceduna and Port Augusta — all petrol stations.

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SA Health urged people who had been at the locations but at different times to also monitor for symptoms.

“We don’t want to take any chances, especially with those some of those really remote Aboriginal communities at Yalata and on the Maralinga Tjarutja land,” the Premier said.

The announcement resulted in football and netball being cancelled in the far west and the Spencer Gulf on Saturday.

It also sparked worries about vulnerable and often transient Aboriginal communities in Port Augusta and the far west.

Horse races went ahead in Port Augusta on Sunday but without a crowd.

The truck drivers, aged 29 and 23, are now quarantining in a hotel in Perth with mild symptoms after testing positive while there.

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