From midnight Wednesday, South Australia entered into a six-day lockdown, with all non-essential travel outside of the home restricted.

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Note: COVID-19 restrictions have changed since this article was published. See InDaily for the latest information.

From 00:00 Thursday, 19 November, South Australia will enter into a six-day period of lockdown, with “significant” restrictions placed on the state.

All non-essential travel outside of the home is restricted, and masks are required to be worn outside of the home. (Browse our list of locally made reusable masks here.)

At a press conference on Wednesday, South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens advised that the following businesses and activities would be “shut down or closed”:

“All schools, except for children of essential workers and vulnerable children.

“Takeaway food will be shut.

“Universities will be closed.

“Pubs, cafés, coffee shops, and food courts will be closed.

“Elective surgery, except for urgent operations and cancer treatment, will be closed.

“We are closing open inspections and auctions for real estate.

“We’re also closing all outdoor sport or physical activity.

“FIFO workers will be on standstill for six days.

“Regional travel is not approved. If you are in a location at the commencement of these restrictions, you’ll be required to stay there.

“Aged care and disability residential care will be in lockdown.

“Factories, other than food and medical products, will be closed, except for where it is necessary to remain open to prevent damage to machinery.

“The construction industry will be closed for six days. Holiday homes will not be available for lease or rental.

“Weddings and funerals will be banned for six days.

“Outdoor sport is not permitted.

“Masks will be required in all areas outside the home.”

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Stevens stressed the list is not complete, and South Australia Police and SA Health were in the process of “consolidat[ing] this list.”

In addition, Stevens stressed that people will be “restricted from going out of their house for a six-day period.”

“The message is stay at home unless you’re accessing essential services or you are an essential worker,” he said.

This includes exercise outside of the home, which is not permitted during this six-day period.

Stevens also listed activities that were still permitted or deemed essential. These are as follows:

“Critical infrastructure, including water, power and telecommunications will be able to function.

“Supermarkets will remain open to provide access to food and essential products. There will be limitations in terms of access, providing specific access to vulnerable members of our community, to make sure they can access goods and services.

“Medical, including mental health, supplies, access to services will be available.

“Public transport will be open.

“The airport and freight services, including courier services, will be able to operate.

“Petrol stations.

“Access to financial institutions and post offices will be able to be accessed.

“Mining, smelting and large factories will also be able to remain open, but only those parts of the facilities that need to operate to ensure continuity of service delivery or to prevent damage to the plant.

“Childcare will be available, only for families of essential workers.

“And the minimum operations of government, including local government, will be permitted to operate.

“Veterinary surgeons will be able to be open.

“…Agriculture will be able to move about to ensure the safety and welfare and processing of animals, and the production of dairy and other agricultural services.

“End of life visits will also be available through organised arrangements.”

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While supermarkets and bottle shops will remain open, only one person per household will be permitted to leave the house for food shopping, and only once per day.

The lockdown will be in effect for six days from Thursday, but there will then be a period of eight days where there will still be “significant restrictions… but not to the same level,” Stevens said.

The nature of the secondary lockdown is still yet to be announced.

The South Australian lockdown has been enacted in response to the Parafield cluster, which came to light over the weekend.

An additional two new cases relating to the cluster were announced at the press conference, and the total cases linked to that cluster are now at 22. An additional seven people “who are either awaiting test results or we had an initial test that was negative but we’re highly suspicious and we’re treating them as infectious,” Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said.

SAPOL has since released this list of permitted and not permitted activities.

For up to date information on coronavirus cases in South Australia, see the SA Health COVID-19 dashboard.

For information on the Parafield cluster, and to check which locations may have caused transmission of the virus, see SA Health’s contact tracing page.

There will be more information on this six-day “circuit breaker” shutdown available at the State Government’s website soon.