South Australia’s government yesterday said that it would not back down on its requirement for 16 Olympians returning from Tokyo via Sydney to quarantine for a total of 28 days, a ruling that the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has described as “cruel.”
The athletes were expecting to quarantine for 14 days, as all those arriving in Australia from overseas must, but the extra two weeks is a South Australia requirement for recent visitors to Sydney.
South Australia Premier Steven Marshall said he would not be granting the athletes an exemption, especially given that the state’s seven-day lockdown was the result of a resident with COVID-19 returning home after undergoing quarantine in Sydney.
“It’s devastating for people who have already done 14 days,” Marshall told local media. “It is a tough decision, but we have got to take tough decisions to protect South Australia. It is very, very tough and we feel for these athletes, but every person coming in from Sydney at the moment is required to do 14 days of quarantine.”
Marshall said that the majority of the athletes would be able to isolate at home rather than in quarantine hotels, but that is unlikely to appease the AOC.
AOC chief executive Matt Carroll said that it had received assurances from the National Cabinet, the body that oversees inter-state relations, that no athlete would have to quarantine twice.
The AOC had applied for dispensation on the grounds that Olympians were fully vaccinated, had been tested daily and were living in a biosecure “bubble,” Carroll said.
The AOC had been given no reason for the rejection of its application, he said.
“Our concern from the outset has been the mental and physical health of the athletes, and we have respected the 14-day quarantine period, but without the detailed reasons, it’s very hard to understand why these athletes are being required to undergo this additional quarantine period,” Carroll said. “A reduction in the period of quarantine would be a good outcome.”
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