Swans' Adelaide AFL game likely to proceed
The AFL game at Adelaide Oval between the Sydney Swans and Port Adelaide this weekend is set to proceed despite an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in NSW.
SA Health has written to the Swans to outline details of an exemption to allow the team to fly into South Australia for Saturday's match.
The exemption came ahead of announcements on Wednesday that the number of virus cases in Sydney had jumped to more than 30, including some not immediately linked to previous infections.
South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said a lot of rigour had been applied to determining the safety protocols surrounding the AFL clash.
"We need to recognise that there's a balance here that we're trying to strive to protect the South Australian community from the risk of COVID-19 coming into South Australia," he told reporters.
"But at the same time, we allow these major activities to occur because of the benefit we get from a social perspective and also from an economic perspective."
The restrictions to be imposed on the Swans are expected to be similar to those imposed on the Collingwood and Geelong teams in recent weeks.
They included having the players fly in and out on the same day on a charter plane, restricting the size of the group who must all return a negative test before arriving and also requiring a declaration that they have not visited any coronavirus exposure sites.
Premier Steven Marshall said SA officials were obviously concerned with the increasing number of cases in NSW.
He said SA Health continued to work closely with the two clubs.
At the same time, SA increased restrictions on travellers from Sydney, requiring travellers from the City of Sydney, Randwick, Canada Bay and Woollahra council areas in the past 14 days to self-isolate until they take a virus test, and they must be retested on days 5 and 13.
Anyone who has been in the Waverley Council area is currently banned from entering SA.
It's not yet clear if Wednesday's increase in the Sydney COVID-19 cluster will lead to tougher SA travel rules.
