South Australia launches two digital tools for assessing travellers as part of opening border
With South Australia set to reopen its borders from this coming Tuesday, the state's Premier Steven Marshall has announced two new digital tools that incoming travellers may be required to use to enter the state.
The first tool is an online border entry process, called EntryCheck SA, that all incoming travellers must use. It will assess an individual's vaccination status, departure location, and COVID-19 risk, and will be available to people on Friday.
Based on the information provided, vaccinated individuals arriving from interstate areas with community transmission and from overseas may also be required to use another digital tool, the new HealthCheck SA mobile app, as part of their entry conditions.
The HealthCheck SA app is an offshoot of the state's home quarantine app, and is intended to help users monitor daily symptoms and guide them through any testing and quarantine requirements.
The app uses facial recognition and geolocation to ensure those entering the state from high-risk locations comply with quarantine requirements.
In terms of who is allowed to travel into South Australia from Tuesday, Marshall has listed fully vaccinated travellers from most of New South Wales, Victoria, and internationally as those part of this first phase of re-entry. The rules of entry vary depending on where a person is arriving from, however.
Fully vaccinated travellers from every Victorian and New South Wales local government area, except for Byron Bay as it has yet to hit a vaccination rate of 80%, will not need to quarantine and are only required to take a COVID-19 test within 24 hours of arrival along with using the EntryCheck SA process.
Interstate travellers from any area with community transmission will need to have a COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to arriving in South Australia and be required to perform a daily symptom check for 14 days on the HealthCheck SA app.
For all incoming interstate travellers, quarantine will not be required unless they test positive for COVID-19.
Travellers arriving from overseas, meanwhile, will need to quarantine for a week and produce a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours prior to arrival. They must also take a test within 24 hours of arrival and again on days six and 13 of their time in the state, as well as perform two weeks of daily symptom checks on the HealthCheck SA app.
In addition to these two digital tools that may need to be used to go into the state, travellers will also be required to check in to any venues they attend. The most popular way to check into a venue in South Australia is through another separate app, the mySA Gov app.
The mySA Gov app provides residents with single account access to the state's services, such as checking into a venue or completing transactions for vehicle registration.
In addition to those features, the app will be able to integrate with digital vaccination certificates from Tuesday, Marshall said. Once integrated, vaccination statuses will display each time individuals use the app's check-in function.
At the time of writing, around 86% of South Australians have had their first dose of COVID-19 vaccinations, while almost 76% of the state are now fully vaccinated.
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