South Australia Has Announced a Six-Day Coronavirus Lockdown

All schools will be shut down.

From midnight tonight, South Australia will impose a six-day lockdown to "stay ahead" of a growing coronavirus outbreak threatening the state. The state government is describing the major lockdown as a "circuit breaker". 

As reported by the ABC, South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said the measure is necessary to allow for contact tracing on cases linked to the Parafield cluster. 

"We continue to face our biggest challenge to date," Mr Marshall told reporters. 

"We are going hard and we are going early. Time is of the essence." 

Two new COVID-19 cases have been announced today in SA, both linked to the cluster. 

What restrictions will be in place?

For the next six days, all pubs, cafes, takeaway food outlets and the construction industry will close. Additionally, people will not be allowed to exercise outside of their homes. 

All schools will also shut down, except for students of essential workers. Universities will close, while aged care and disability residential care will be in strict lockdown. 

As reported by 9News, the South Australia Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said people will be restricted from going out of their house during the six-day lockdown period.

Only one person per household will be allowed to leave the house each day, and only for specific purposes like obtaining groceries or supermarket supplies. People may also leave to provide care and support for another person where it is essential or for medical services. 

At this stage, face masks will not be made mandatory until the logistics of supply can be guaranteed

Other restrictions include temporarily banning fly-in-fly-out work, regional travel and the rental of holiday homes. 

Okay, so what will still be open?

Good question. 

From midnight tonight, critical infrastructure, supermarkets, medical and mental health facilities, airport and freight services and petrol stations will remain open. 

Additionally, post offices and financial institutions will also stay open for business. 

While supermarkets are staying open, they'll be introducing limits in SA after people flocked to buy essentials like meat, eggs, tissues and—of course—toilet paper. 

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