South Australian venues forced to shut immediately

South Australian (SA) venues today have been forced to shutter as the state enters a six-day lockdown from midnight tonight to curb the spread of a coronavirus outbreak.

The lockdown, which will be followed by eight days of eased restrictions, comes after the state detected the first community cases in six months in Adelaide on Sunday.

Under the “circuit-breaker” lockdown, residents must stay home and cannot leave for exercise; mask-wearing will be mandatory in public; all schools and universities will close except for children of essential workers; shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs will close with no takeaway options; and there will be bans on regional travel.

Anyone visiting SA will have to immediately find somewhere to stay for six days and people are being asked not to leave the state for 14 days.

“Covid-19 has swept back into South Australia, posing our greatest health challenge in generations,” says South Australia’s premier Stephen Marshall.

“Covid-19 is a silent enemy and that’s why we’re going hard and going early”

“It’s a challenge I know we will overcome, because we’ve done it before. This circuit breaker will give our world-class health teams the time they need to protect our community. We won’t get a second chance to prevent a second wave of Covid-19. It’s a silent enemy and that’s why we’re going hard and going early.”

The premier praised South Australians’ response to the latest outbreak, saying the cluster had been caught “very early” and authorities know where the links are.

The lockdown comes amid Music SA’s Go Live campaign, an initiative encouraging audiences to safely attend live music from 18 September to 31 December 31 this year.

While SA shuts down, other parts of Australia are opening for business. Yesterday, Queensland initiated a rollback of restrictions, allowing venues and stadia to operate at 100% capacity provided patrons are seated and socially distanced.

Elsewhere, New South Wales is set to host Australia’s first arena shows since the shutdown of the concert business in March and live music under more stringent restrictions has returned to regional Victoria.

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