Page35 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 2 December 2020
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Adelaide arrivals. New South Wales and the ACT kept borders open but established declaration processes for anyone arriving from South Australia, while Victoria closed its border for a short period until a similar declaration process could be implemented. On 19 November 2020 the ACT Chief Health Officer signed a public health direction requiring anyone travelling to the ACT who has been in South Australia in the past 14 days to complete an online declaration prior to entering the ACT. This situation in South Australia evolved rapidly and continues to be closely monitored by the ACT Chief Health Officer and the government. New cases linked to the South Australian Parafield cluster continue to be reported, with a total of 33 linked cases as at 1 December.
We remain alert to the possibility of new cases emerging in our community, particularly because of residents returning from COVID-19 hotspots. Our priority remains to test people presenting with COVID-19 symptoms and ensure that those approved returning travellers are quarantining safely.
As of 30 November, New South Wales had notified 32 new cases over the previous week and five cases in the last 24 hours. All notified cases have arisen from returned travellers in hotel quarantine. As of Monday, New South Wales had not reported a locally acquired coronavirus infection for 23 days. On 23 November 2020 New South Wales opened its border with Victoria and the ACT also removed restrictions on people travelling from Victoria.
Madam Speaker, this was able to be done with confidence because the COVID-19 situation in Victoria had improved so dramatically. The most recent locally acquired case was reported on 29 October 2020 and as of 1 December there were no active cases in the state. This is a remarkable feat and Victorians deserve the gratitude of all Australians for their fortitude in seeing through a very tough lockdown to get to this outstanding position. On 22 November Victoria moved to the last step in its road map for reopening, following no new cases in the state for 14 days. Progress to COVID normal is planned for when there are no new cases for 28 days, no active cases in Victoria and no outbreaks of concern in other states or territories.
Members may be aware that this is the 10th update on the ACT government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that I have provided to the Assembly since I declared a public health emergency on 16 March 2020. Locally, I am pleased to report that the ACT has continued to do well in suppressing COVID-19. There continues to be no evidence of community transmission in the ACT.
Since my last update to the Assembly on 20 August, the ACT has recorded four new cases, all returned overseas travellers who were already in quarantine and have been expertly managed and supported by our public health teams. We currently have two active cases in the ACT. A total of 112 cases have recovered and sadly there were three deaths early in the pandemic.
As members may be aware, the most recent case of COVID-19 was detected in the ACT on 28 November 2020. The new case is a woman in her 20s who returned to Australia on the government-facilitated flight that arrived on 26 November. No other COVID-19 positive tests have been reported from returned Australians from this
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