SA Is Reopening Its Borders to Greater Sydney If You're Keen for a Wine-Fuelled Holiday
Sydneysiders will be allowed into SA (without quarantining) from this Sunday — but you will still need to get COVID-19 tests.
For most of 2021, residents of the Greater Sydney area haven't been able to venture far, with state borders around Australia closing to the area due to the city's most recent COVID-19 clusters. But, slowly, that's changing across the country — with South Australia the latest state to announce that it'll reopen to Sydneysiders.
At the moment, residents from Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are all allowed to enter SA without restriction — and, from 12.01am on Sunday, January 31, the Greater Sydney area in New South Wales will also join that list.
In a press conference held today, Thursday, January 28, Premier Steven Marshall revealed that SA will allow travellers from Greater Sydney in from Sunday without having to quarantine for 14 days first — if there are no new cases of community transmission identified in NSW before then.
Travellers from the area, plus Wollongong and the Central Coast, will still need to undertake COVID-19 tests, though, which will need to be take on day one, five and 12 of their time in SA. They'll also need to isolate until the first test result comes back — but, as long as it returns a negative result, that's the only quarantining that'll be required.
If you're heading to SA from outside of Sydney, Wollongong or the Central Coast, you won't need to get a COVID-19 test.
The news comes on the same day that Queensland also announced that it was reopening its borders to Greater Sydney — which will come into effect on Monday, February 1, the day after SA. Victoria reopened to all but one Greater Sydney local government area last week, too, so border rules have been changing thick and fast to close out January.
If you're now eager to start planning an SA getaway, we have suggestions — whether you're eager to hit up Adelaide, or sip and sightsee your way around the Fleurieu Peninsula, the Limestone Coast or the Clare Valley.
To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in South Australia, and the state's corresponding restrictions, visit its online COVID-19 hub.
Top image: Barossa Valley, Tourism Australia.
