NEW South Wales will relax its border restrictions with Victoria this month as South Australia also moves towards softening its hard border closure with Victoria.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday the hard border, put in place in response to Victoria’s devastating COVID-19 second wave, will be lifted on November 23.
Victoria recorded its fifth consecutive day without any new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, as South Australia ended the need for cross-border community residents to have weekly coronavirus tests.
SA Premier Steven Marshall said the state’s hard border with Victoria would likely be dropped within two weeks, subject to no further mysterious cases emerging.
“Victoria has been doing extraordinarily well recently … we’re still waiting to see what the full implications of the increased mobility will be,” he said.
SA’s chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said her government wanted to return to a softer border arrangement with Victoria, which would still require those crossing into that state to quarantine for 14 days.
Currently, only those seeking to relocate permanently to SA, students and essential workers can travel.
“For the sake of a couple more weeks and for the safety of South Australians, we all need to be a little bit more patient,” Prof Spurrier said.
“Christmas is coming, and the festive season, and we all want to be in a safe place at the same time across Australia.
“I think we can feel quietly confident as a nation that we really have got on top of this.”
