Restrictions ease for hospitality venues as SA records no new cases

Hospitality venues in South Australia will now be able to operate at one person per two square metres.

The new social distancing requirement will be effective immediately, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens announced this morning.

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"Given the economic implications, the impact on employment, the current time of the year, our current performance with the Parafield cluster and the new measures we have in place to enhance contact tracing, my decision has been that we will endorse a one person per two-square-metre rule for hospitality, particularly," Mr Stevens said.

"We look at it from a public health point of view, look at it from a social and economic point of view as well."

Despite eased restrictions, he urged South Australians to be cautious and remain compliant with the use of QR codes in hospitality venues to help with contact tracing.

"We're not saying we are entirely safe, on safe ground to move forward, but it's about finding that balance," Mr Stevens said.

"We are managing risk.

"The QR codes have been described as a game changer in terms of contact tracing and the exceptional work that has been done to quarantine this cluster and put a ring around it so it doesn't spread any further through the community has been exceptional."

Other activities will still be restricted to one person per four square metres but will be reassessed next week.

"We're still hopeful that other restrictions will be lifted and we will go back to where we were in mid-November on the 14th of December," Mr Stevens said.

COVID-19 update

The eased restrictions come as South Australia recorded no new cases of COVID-19 overnight, Chief Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said.

Today's figured bring the total active cases in the state to seven.

The number of people in home quarantine has dropped to 272, from about 5000 at the peak of the second wave.

However, Professor Spurrier said she was concerned about the low testing numbers – 3548 conducted in the past 24 hours.

"This really isn't high enough," she said.

South Australia has gone six days since an infection from the Parafield cluster.