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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-11-17 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus, Hotel Quarantine

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:18): My question is to the Premier. How did the virus emerge from the Peppers hotel if, as the Premier says, there was not a breach of hotel quarantine?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:18): I have gone through this before, and I am very happy to go through it again because I do understand that it is of great interest to the people of South Australia. What we know about this at this stage is that it was very likely that the person who contracted this disease was in fact a back of house worker within Peppers, most likely to have contracted the disease from the infection that remained on a surface.

They took this home and it spread to their family. In fact, 15 members of the same family have now been positively identified as living with this disease. It is very likely that that back of house worker also transmitted the disease to two of the security officers, so 17 in total, and then this morning I reported there was a further one from all of the tests which were taken yesterday. I do not believe this constitutes a breach. In fact, we have gone through all the details with regard to the way that we conduct ourselves at Peppers, and we believe that it meets the very high standards that we have set for ourselves in accordance with those procedures and protocols agreed with the AHPPC and the national cabinet. That is evidenced by the fact that, very recently, with that Jane Halton report, we were really held up as an exemplar for what best practice looks like.

We are not concerned that there was a breach; however, of course, after this event is over, there will be time for a more fulsome investigation. But at this stage my 100 per cent focus is on getting in front of this disease. We are wanting to do everything we can to stop it in its tracks. We can all see what the effects are—the devastating effects—if we go into a second wave in South Australia. It will be devastating on individuals, on families, on businesses, on our reputation as a state, so we are going to be doing everything we can to stop it in its tracks.

We have accepted the advice that has been offered by Professor Nicola Spurrier and the team at SA Health with regard to changes to the restrictions. We know that these are going to be very punishing on businesses and individuals in South Australia, but the consequences of not stopping this disease are very much more problematic for our state in the future. So we have accepted those recommendations, we have put them in place as quickly as possible and we hope the people of South Australia will continue to work with us. If yesterday is any indication, we know that the people of South Australia are with us.

Yesterday morning in the media we were very positively messaging that we were asking anybody with any respiratory symptoms whatsoever, whether that be a sore throat, a runny nose, a head cold, a loss or a change in the senses of smell or taste, to go and immediately get themselves tested—and that's precisely what people did in record numbers yesterday. More than that, when we speak to the Communicable Disease Control Branch, when we speak to the people in the contact tracing team or the people in SA Health, when we are asking people to go into isolation—and we know that this is a big ask—we are getting 100 per cent acceptance, 100 per cent cooperation.

The people of South Australia want to do the right thing by their state and this is a real show of the character of the people of South Australia who want to get on top of this. They do not want to see what is happening in other parts of the world at the moment. They want to stop this disease dead in its tracks, and they are going to be doing every single thing that they can to make sure that that's a reality.

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