After enjoying weeks without any recorded COVID-19 cases, South Australia is witnessing a cluster of cases that is growing fast, and has the state on high alert.
With 23 people confirmed as testing positive, the state has been ordered into severe lockdown, as of Thursday morning, for six days.
As of Tuesday afternoon, all beauty workers are required to wear a mask while carrying out treatments and, where possible, customers were asked to wear them too. However, within 24 hours, the situation had changed dramatically.
“We are going to get through this but we are going to get through this with the cooperation of every single South Australian citizen. Everybody must play their role in making sure we stop this disease in its tracks,” said South Australia premier Steven Marshall. Referring to the mandatory lockdown as a “circuit breaker”, Mr Marshall said South Australians had an obligation to ensure they did not face a similar situation to what Victoria has just emerged from. “We can and we must rise to this challenge,” Mr Marshall said. “We’re going hard and we’re going early. We need a circuit-breaking to stay ahead of this … we need breathing space for a contact tracing blitz.”
Adelaide salon owner Sheryl Bain is hoping that the lockdown doesn’t extend last six days. “We saw what happened in Victoria. Four weeks turned into six, and then that became 112 days. My business won’t survive that.”
Mr Marshall is expected to make a further statement about the restrictions in the coming days.
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