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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-05 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:32): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question about more recent cases of COVID-19 or coronavirus.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Yesterday, around lunchtime, the government revealed that there had been another two suspected cases of COVID-19 in South Australia: a mother and her child are now under hospital care after self-reporting. They arrived in Adelaide last Sunday on a Malaysia Airlines flight they had connected with following a visit to Iran. As we have known for weeks, Iran is one of the growing hotspots, outside of China, for COVID-19; another is Italy, a very popular destination for Australians. My questions to the minister are:

1. Was the minister aware of this latest case or cases when he introduced his bill in the chamber on Tuesday, and how was it detected or reported?

2. Are there any new cases since yesterday's announcement?

3. When was border security at Adelaide International Airport specifically put on stand-by to screen any passengers that may have come from these problem countries?

4. How many passengers from that flight have been contacted?

5. Will travel restrictions or bans now be placed on persons coming from Italy, Iran, South Korea and other COVID-19 trouble spots, apart from China?

6. Can the minister give us an update on any measures recommended to aged-care facilities in trying to avoid COVID-19?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:34): With your leave, Mr President, I will now take up the rest of question time! It was quite an array of questions, so I will try to do my best to answer as many as I can as succinctly as I can. In relation to the first question, 'Have there been any updates in terms of suspected cases?', yes there have been. Since the advice yesterday, we have been advised that the baby of the Iranian mother has also tested positive for COVID-19.

Since the house last met, or since the last question time, there is also the case of the 24-year-old female who had travelled around Europe, including Italy. She has tested positive for COVID-19. Today, we have been advised of a 58-year-old male who had recently travelled from Taiwan. The Taiwan to Brisbane flight number was BR 315 (that's EVA Air), and then there was Virgin Australia 1394, arriving in Adelaide on Tuesday 3 March.

In regard to the Hon. Frank Pangallo's question about whether I knew about the Iranian mother when I introduced the legislation, the answer is no. In relation to how long border security has been in place, I think it would be three or four weeks. To be clear, it's not actually my direct area of responsibility; it's delivered by the federal agency Border Force. It has engaged both SA Ambulance extended care paramedics and also nurses from our hospitals. SA Health is playing its part to backup commonwealth agencies but is not the direct provider of the service.

In terms of the honourable member's questions in relation to travellers coming from high-risk countries, I thank him for asking me the question because it's something I would like to impress on all members of the chamber and all members of the South Australian community. Because of the rapidly escalating nature of the situation, it changes daily—literally daily. I think it was about 1 o'clock our time when the Prime Minister announced that there would be travel restrictions in relation to Italy. I do not want to go into the details because I want to make sure that people get this information completely correct.

There are, if you like, quite detailed questions you need to ask yourself. The best site for this, in terms of general advice, is the Smartraveller website, run by the commonwealth government. I would commend to all members the commonwealth Department of Health's website in relation to the coronavirus. Not only does it have the latest updates in terms of the current situation in terms of cases and so forth in Australia, it also has detailed advice in terms of travel advisories and, to be frank, very useful fact sheets for industries and a whole range of areas. It's very important for all businesses—government, private, non-government and community organisations—to consider how the coronavirus might impact on their operations and what steps they can take now to prepare for what might come.

Those are my best efforts to answer the honourable member's questions. I am happy to deal with anything I missed in supplementaries.

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