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South Australia records two new coronavirus cases, including one from NSW

NSW health authorities said earlier that a "possible coronavirus case" in SA was being investigated.

NSW health authorities said earlier that a "possible coronavirus case" in SA was being investigated. Photo: AP

South Australia has recorded two new coronavirus cases, including a man who travelled into the state from New South Wales and a traveller in a medi-hotel.

SA Health said details about the former case still need to be confirmed, but it is believed the man from NSW may be an old, non-infectious case.

The man in his 20s travelled on a flight from Darwin to Sydney on Friday, December 18 — the same flight as another infectious person, but health authorities said he was not seated near the other case.

He then travelled from Sydney to Wodonga, and to the town of Maitland on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula, crossing the border early on Monday, December 21.

He got a COVID-19 test the following day which resulted in what authorities described as a “weak positive”.

SA Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said today that further blood tests show it is likely to be an old infection.

But she said the man and five of his close contacts are currently in quarantine as a precaution.

“He arrived in South Australia by road and he travelled from New South Wales and came into [SA] in the early hours of Monday,” Professor Spurrier said.

“My understanding is he spent a little bit of time travelling through rural Victoria.

“It looks like this is, indeed, an old case … but I will need to have that verification.”

Professor Spurrier said the man had been in Victoria during the height of that state’s COVID-19 outbreak in October and November, but that he had never experienced symptoms.

The second case is a man in his 70s who flew into South Australia from Doha on December 18, and has been in hotel quarantine since arriving.

-more to come

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