A new Direction has been issued in South Australia, titled Supervised Quarantine.
The Emergency Management (Medi-Hotel testing) (COVID-19) Direction 2020 has been revoked and replaced by the Emergency Management (Supervised Quarantine) (COVID-19) Direction 2020. This Direction comes into effect at 12.01am Monday 14 December 2020.
The key facts of the Direction are as follows:
People working at a Medi-Hotel are now required to receive a COVID-19 test at least every 7 days, for up to 14 days from the date they last worked at the site. They must also wear PPE while in a designated red or orange zone at a medi-hotel.
This includes employees and contractors of the following:
- SA Police;
- SA Health;
- Australian Defence Force; and
- All employees and contractors of Medi-Hotel operators including front of house, cleaning and security.
*People who have delivered goods to a Medi-Hotel that were present for less than 30 minutes who had no contact with people undertaking quarantine and those in hotel quarantine are exempt from this Direction.
Any person working at a Medi-Hotel who develops COVID-19 symptoms must notify SA Health and further direction will be given in relation to self-isolation requirements. Symptoms include:
- Cough;
- Sore throat;
- Shortness of breath;
- Runny nose;
- Fever or history of fever or chills;
- Acute loss of smell or taste;
- Headache;
- Muscle aches;
- Unexplained fatigue; and/or
- Nausea and/or vomiting and/or diarrhoea.
An operator of a Medi-hotel must:
- Adopt a Testing Compliance Plan which requires employees and contractors to notify the operators of their COVID-19 test;
- Keep records of information given to them in relation to the COVID-19 tests;
- Provide these records to an authorised officer on request; and
- Urgently report any instance of non-compliance to an authorised officer.
The Direction also applies to a person undertaking supervised quarantine in a medi-hotel room, who must:
- Not leave the room except in an emergency situation;
- Take reasonable steps to ensure no other person enters the room unless in an emergency; ensure items are not shared with any other person undertaking quarantine;
- Wear a face mask when in the physical presence of another person other than those sharing the same room (exemptions apply see the Direction for further detail);
- Wait at least 3 minutes after items including food are delivered to the hotel room before opening the door to collect the item while wearing a mask;
- Not throw or project items from a balcony; and
- Not abuse, intimidate, threaten or harass a person providing services at the medi-hotel.
The Communicable Diseases Control Branch can be contacted on 1300 232 272.
The information above only highlights the changed facts within the Supervised Quarantine Direction. Members of the public are encouraged to see the full direction for further information.
All existing directions, frequently asked questions and other information can be found here: https://www.covid-19.sa.gov.au/emergency-declarations
If you require further information you can call the SA COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787 between the hours of 9am to 5pm 7 days per week or go to the SA Health website at www.sahealth.sa.gov.au or www.sa.gov.au/covid-19
