Two close contacts identified in Mount Gambier

NO CONCERN: South Australia chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier says community members should not be concerned over a potential Covid exposure at a private business Mount Gambier, with health authorities working with the company to identify close contacts and potential risk.

By Raquel Mustillo

TWO employees at a Mount Gambier-based manufacturing company have been forced into isolation after a Covid positive person attended the site last week.

But chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said community members should not be concerned, with health authorities liaising directly with the company to determine close contacts and potential risk.

In an all-staff email viewed by The Border Watch, the company said a Covid positive person – who was not an employee of the company and was wearing a mask – was at its dispatch area on Friday from 4.45pm to 6.45pm.

The company, which The Border Watch has chosen not to name, told staff that one employee had been in contact with the person, while another may have been in contact.

“Both of these employees have subsequently left site, have presented for a Covid test and will remain in isolation until they have received a confirmed negative test,” the email said.

“The areas that the person [have] been in are in the process of undergoing a deep clean”.

In the email, the company said the control measures ensured there is “minimal risk to our employees.”

The company declined to comment beyond “we have been and continue to work closely with SA Health on this matter”.

SA Health have yet to confirm any details, but Prof Spurrier said exposure sites located at private businesses are not released publicly.

Prof Spurrier said an infected truck driver was carting timber, adding there “may be a number of timber yards where he either picked up or delivered freight in our state.”

“Don’t be concerned if [the site] is not listed on our public website because we would have gone directly to those organisations, looked at their CCTV, pulled that and worked out who their close contacts are,” she said.

“There is no need from a public health point of view to be giving that information out.”