FROM midnight, tonight (September 15), the requirement to quarantine for 14 days will be lifted for people travelling between ACT and South Australia. 

SA police commissioner Grant Stevens made the announcement in a media conference today, saying Canberrans will still be required to fill in the pre-approval online and people will be required to declare that they have not been outside of the safe transmission zone for the 14-day period prior to travelling into SA.

“This is our way of assuring, as best as possible, that those people travelling between Australia and other places have not exposed themselves to the risk of contracting COVID-19, and therefore bringing it into SA,” the commissioner said. 

“[For] NSW, the 14 day quarantine period will remain in force for the foreseeable future until South Australian health experts are satisfied that the community transmission issues, which are occurring in NSW, have abated to the degree that we can allow that movement from NSW into SA without adversely impacting on the SA community from a public health view.”

Until that occurs, the commissioner said Canberrans will only be able to travel via air, saying it’s not possible for them to be confident that a person driving between ACT and SA has not had contact with the NSW community.

“[But] we’re hopeful that the situation with NSW will continue to improve,” he said.