Border buffer zone to be reinstated

On Tuesday, Premier Steven Marshall announced the zone - which stretches 40 kilometres either side of the border - would be reinstated at midnight on Thursday night.

"As of Friday, school students will be able to return to school in SA, businesses will be able to resume exactly as they were," Mr Marshall said.

"There's one caveat on this - and that is that we don't have further community transmission in that western part of Vic between now and midnight on Thursday night."

He said the decision had been made after more information was received about cases in western Vic, and defended the initial move to strengthen border restrictions from August 21.

"The information that's been provided to us by the Victorian authorities has given the Transition Committee the confidence to put that 40km buffer either side of the border back in place for this coming Friday," he said.

"We've said from day one, we don't want to be disrupting communities but we will listen to the expert advice and will act promptly."

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SA's chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said midnight on Thursday had been selected as the best time to reinstate the buffer zone as it would be 14 days - a full incubation period - since the last case was diagnosed in the Glenelg Shire, which lies just across the Vic border from Mount Gambier.

She said Vic authorities had also provided more information about testing rates in Western Vic.

"It's not just the numbers, or where they're from, or the chains of transmission, it's also to do with how much testing is being done," she said.

"If you don't test a large number of people in that population, you can't be sure that you're capturing everybody that might have symptoms or might be positive for COVID-19.

"I've also got detailed information about the testing rates in all those LGAs. The Glenelg Shire has a particularly good testing rate. Mildura is one where the rates are a little bit lower, certainly lower than they are in SA."

Professor Spurrier said while the decision to reinstate the buffer zone was based on case numbers, the impact on cross-border communities couldn't be ignored.

"We really need to have a look also at the impact on the people that live in those areas, and it has been extremely disruptive, and I don't think anyone could say that's not the case," she said.

"But we do need to look at the safety of South Australians, and now that I have further information from Vic and it's very detailed, I think we can confidently move back to that situation."

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SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said people applying for exemptions to be able to cross the border should not experience delays in hearing back about their applications.

"The approval process at the moment is virtually real time for people who are applying for essential traveller status," he said.

"Those people who currently have a situation which requires them to move between Vic and SA as part of a cross-border community, in many cases their current approvals will still be active, but we'd certainly be encouraging and communicating with those affected communities to make sure their approval is correct, so that when they do approach the border, they are not unduly hindered in terms of being able to move across."

He confirmed that people travelling between Vic and SA in the 40km buffer zone would once again be required to be tested every seven days.

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