South Australia will crackdown on people avoiding QR codes as the state’s police commissioner warns “leakage” from their hotel quarantine program is unavoidable.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens announced a seven-day operation to send police to SA businesses to warn and potentially fine patrons and owners who don’t use QR codes.

A Victorian man tested positive for COVID-19 this week after leaving hotel quarantine in Adelaide with authorities concerned he contracted the virus just before his departure.

Mr Stevens said people must continue to use the codes as outbreaks were still possible despite having next to no instances of COVID-19 in the community. His warning mirrors those of authorities around Australia who are concerned about people beginning to stop using QR codes.

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“We just need to look back on the outbreak, the leakage that we’ve had from a South Australian hotel in the last few days,” Mr Stevens said.

“It’s a stark reminder to us that COVID-19 is in our community. We are currently containing it within many hotels, but there was no guarantee that we won’t have an outbreak in the future so we need the capacity to be able to quickly trace anyone who’s been possibly exposed and deal with those people as they need to be dealt with, whether that be quarantine or COVID testing or isolating until they have a negative test.

“The QR codes give us an enhanced ability to do that. Failure to QR means diminishing our capacity to respond.”