South Australia has recorded three COVID-related deaths as the Premier flags the potential for further easing of restrictions in the next week.
The deaths were a woman in her 70s and a man and a woman in their 80s, bringing the total number of COVID-positive deaths since the start of the pandemic to 125.
The state recorded 1,363 new cases of COVID-19 today – about 200 less than yesterday – and now has 17,199 active cases.
The number of people in hospital remains at 223, while the number of people in intensive care dropped from 18 yesterday to 15 today.
Five people remain on ventilators.
Premier Steven Marshall said some restrictions would be lifted starting from next week, followed by further easing of restrictions a fortnight later.
"We can't take them all off at once so it has to be done in a prioritised way," he said.
Mr Marshall said increased density limits at hospitality venues and gyms as well as the caps on home gatherings were among those being considered.
The tourism, fitness and hospitality sectors will be prioritised for relaxed restrictions.
"Certainly I'm in favour of easing restrictions that create jobs," Mr Marshall said.
AHA boss downplays leaked email
Late on Friday, the head of South Australia's hotels lobby downplayed the significance of a leaked email in which it was implied the premier said he would try to persuade the police commissioner to lift restrictions on hospitality venues.
In the email, Australian Hotels Association General Manager Ian Horne states that in a meeting earlier this week, Mr Marshall said he could envisage the state being almost restriction-free within "a month to six weeks".
He writes in the email that the Premier would welcome positive comment and support from the industry if "he is successful in persuading the Police Commissioner acting as State Coordinator to support these changes at the end of next week".
But Mr Horne later told the ABC that those were his words, not Mr Marshall's.
"That was not what the Premier said, that was speculation based on what he said at various press conferences for the last week but he certainly gave us no such specific, deliberate undertaking," Mr Horne said.
Earlier on Friday, SA Health listed two Adelaide nightspots as COVID-19 exposure sites overnight.
Patrons who attended Zhivago on Currie Street last Friday night into the early hours of Saturday morning must immediately quarantine as close contacts for seven days, which means they would be finished isolating tomorrow.
Mr Marshall said he was unsure how many cases were linked to Zhivago, but said it must have been "a significant number" to have been listed by SA Health.
"It's still important to get that message out because there are a lot of people with this disease who are asymptomatic so if they've been there it is still really important if they are at the site that was deemed for close contacts that they get that PCR test today," he said.
The Fumo Blu bar on Rundle Street was also listed as a 'high risk' location during a similar time frame, meaning people who were there must closely monitor for symptoms, particularly if they were not wearing a mask.
The two nightspots are among only a handful of venues to be listed as public exposure sites since the volume of new COVID-19 cases overwhelmed the state's contact tracing capacity.
Hundreds of teachers already off work due to COVID
Department for Education chief executive Rick Persse said 200 teachers were off work because of COVID-19, just two days into term.
Mr Persse told ABC Radio Adelaide that 125 teachers had tested positive for the virus, 41 were in isolation and 34 were caring for someone with COVID-19.
Mr Persse said that was a rate similar to the general population, probably because there were high rates of community transmission prior to school returning.
"Because this is the start of the year, we're capturing data almost back 10-14 days, so this isn't a daily infection rate," he said.
Labor education spokesman Blair Boyer said while it was not clear whether the teachers and support staff picked up their infections at school, the high number of positive COVID-19 cases was concerning.
"The numbers certainly seem high, given that we've only been back for a given number of days and we only have a certain number of school levels and kids actually back at school in a face-to-face setting," he said.
But Mr Marshall said he was "very pleased" with the return to school, and said the level of COVID-affected teachers was "a very acceptable number".
"We've got a workforce in education of over 30,000 people ... it's just a function of the number of people working in the sector," he said.
COVID outbreaks in nine Aboriginal communities
Yesterday, SA Health told a parliamentary committee that there were COVID-19 outbreaks in nine Aboriginal communities.
The outbreaks were in places such as Ceduna, Port Augusta and the APY Lands.
Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said the COVID-Ready Committee was being given advice on what the problems were and how they were being addressed.
"At the moment, we have very significant issues with Aboriginal outbreaks with nine Aboriginal communities and so we've had over the last fortnight to presentations from our Aboriginal health leads," she said.
