South Australia has reported 26 new COVID-19 cases, its highest daily figure for more than 18 months.

Premier Steven Marshall revealed the new cases on Wednesday, the highest daily number since April last year.

Mr Marshall said with the state entering the suppression phase of the disease, new infections could be expected every day.

“We’ve been pretty open and transparent about the way that we moved from the elimination strategy to the suppression strategy,” he said.

“If you go back two months, we didn’t want to have a single case of community transmission.

“We’re at suppression now. We’re going to have cases every day going forward.

“But it is still important we don’t let it just run through our state.”

Multiple exposure sites have been identified in relation to SA’s current infections with about 1400 people in quarantine.

But SA has reduced the quarantine period for returned international travellers from 14 to seven days.

At the same time, it has decided to maintain testing rules for travellers, including the extra “speed bumps” for people from NSW, Victoria and the ACT, who must have a test before arriving and another test on arrival.

Mr Marshall said the extra testing measures were expected to remain for some time.

– AAP