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Another federal politician has tested positive for coronavirus, with South Australian senator Rex Patrick confirming he is the fourth politician to be infected.
Key points:
- The Centre Alliance senator was confirmed to have coronavirus
- He has been in self-isolation since last Tuesday
- Senator Patrick is working with authorities to advise anyone he has been in contact with
The Centre Alliance MP has been in self-isolation since coming into contact with Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, who recently returned a positive test.
It comes as the number of cases in South Australia is confirmed to have jumped by 34 in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 134.
Senator Patrick has said he has no symptoms, but South Australian health authorities have confirmed he does have the virus.
He said he was working with authorities to help them work out who he had been in contact with.
"I haven't got any symptoms, I haven't had any symptoms for the entire 15 days since I've been in contact with Andrew Bragg," he said.
"During that time I met with local mayors, I met with politicians, I did a Press Club function.
"I don't actually know how many people SA Health will put into isolation … I will be medically assessed and at some stage I will have to go through two negative tests before I'm allowed out my apartment."
In an earlier tweet, Senator Patrick advised "anyone concerned about contact with me can ring 1800 020 080."
In addition to Senators Patrick and Bragg, Queensland LNP senator Susan McDonald was also confirmed to have the virus.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was the first federal MP to be diagnosed but has since been discharged from hospital.
Senator Patrick entered self-isolation on Tuesday last week, after Senator Bragg's positive diagnosis was confirmed.
At the time, Senator Patrick said he had last come into contact with Senator Bragg at a Senate inquiry nine days earlier.
What the experts are saying about coronavirus:
SA cases increase by a third in past day
SA's chief public health officer Dr Nicola Spurrier today confirmed the total number of cases in South Australia had increased by about a third in the past 24 hours.
"Similarly to yesterday, the individuals range in age from people in their 20s right through to people in their 70s," she said.
"We have not had any admissions into intensive care.
"At this stage I can still confirm that from all of the people that have been interviewed thus far there still is either a link to a known case, overseas travel or interstate travel.
"In particular, you may be aware of the Ruby Princess and also the Ovation of the Sea, both cruise ships, and we have had a number of cases confirmed of people that had travelled on those cruise liners that had made their way back to South Australia."
Dr Spurrier said while South Australia remained "in a very good place" in terms of combating the spread, "we need to remain there".
She expressed support for the tougher measures to restrict public movements and gatherings.
"I believe this is the right thing to do, we are moving nationally on this, we need to slow the time it takes for this disease to get to Australia and to dampen down the curve to ensure that our health services are able to cope," she said.
Topics: respiratory-diseases, covid-19, diseases-and-disorders, health, epidemiology, epidemics-and-pandemics, federal-government, federal-parliament, adelaide-5000, sa, canberra-2600, act, australia
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