Despite other states looking at decreasing the quarantine time for Covid positive patients, South Australia won’t follow suit, the premier has warned.
Authorities in other jurisdictions are considering cutting the required isolation period to just five days.
Ahead of Thursday’s national cabinet meeting where the topic will be discussed, Premier Steven Marshall was quick to rule out slashing the quarantine time which currently stands at 10 days.
He also rejected the idea of reducing the time to seven days, but said it could be considered in future.
“It’s very clear to me that we still have a huge number of people with symptoms after day five, and we would just be literally lighting a fire in South Australia if we allow them to leave quarantine after five days,” the premier told ABC Radio.
“They would just be out there infecting other people and then we’d have another wave.
“It's possible that could change down the track but we certainly won’t be signing up to that today.”
Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on Wednesday said the nation was continually learning about the virus from its own experiences as well as overseas.
Over in the United States and United Kingdom, a five day isolation rule for positive cases is in place.
“Even though we’re extremely busy working with this peak — or close to peak — of Omicron cases all through Australia, we need to consider and spend time thinking about what happens in the future,” Professor Kelly said.
“The more you go down that path of shorter isolation periods, the higher the risk of transmission within the community.
“We will continue to look at the evidence on this.”
On Wednesday, SA recorded 3482 Covid-19 cases and three deaths.
The state’s daily number of infections has gradually decreased after it reached a record 5679 cases last Friday.
