Donut day in SA one week on from opening the borders

There have been no new cases of COVID-19 reported in South Australia today. 

Yesterday the state recorded one new case in a woman in her 20s who travelled from interstate. 

She was the 10th new case since the state opened its borders to NSW, Victoria and the ACT last Tuesday. 

There are seven active cases in SA. 

As of today, 80.1 per cent of South Australian residents aged 12 and over have received two COVID-19 vaccination doses, while 89.3 per cent have received one dose. 

Today is the first day the vaccination rate reflects the number of those aged 12 and over who are vaccinated, instead of 16 and over. 

SA Health has opened a drive-through vaccination clinic at the SA Produce Market in Pooraka in hope that it will boost double-dose rates in Adelaide’s north. 

The clinic is able to take more than 100 drive-in appointments and up to 250 bookings per day. 

Health Minister Stephen Wade said drive-through vaccine clinics had proven to be popular in Victoria and New South Wales. 

“We opened Australia’s first (and the world’s second) drive-through testing clinic at the Repat in March last year, which has been extremely successful and we hope this drive-through has similar success,” he said. 

“We hope families with children over 12 will see this as a more convenient and accessible way for the whole family to receive their vaccine.”

The Northern Adelaide Local Health Network’s COVID-19 program lead Andrew McGill said vaccination rates in the northern suburbs were sitting at around 70 per cent. 

“We believe having a drive-through facility where consumers can actually drive up, get vaccinated and leave without exiting their car,” he said. 

Mr Wade said the emergence of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 underscores the importance of getting vaccinated. 

“Omicron has so many unanswered questions,” he said. 

“I’m hoping that the arrival of the Omicron variant will actually be a boost to those vaccination rates.  

“It’s really important that people appreciated the urgency of getting vaccinated, we don’t know where this virus is going to go, going forward.” 

The COVID-Ready plan released in October cites a 90 per cent vaccination rate among those 12 and over as the point at which international travellers can come without quarantining.

The Australian Medical Association’s South Australian branch president Michelle Atchison yesterday called for the state’s borders to be shut once more following the arrival of Omicron to Australia. 

The state’s transition committee met this morning and flagged no changes to SA’s border restrictions. 

“We are managing any sort of shift in the virus at this point in time and it means we can maintain the current situation,” SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said. 

Earlier today, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would not allow a return to lockdowns or harsh restrictions on Australians following the arrival of Omicron. 

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