CANBERRA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- The government of South Australia (SA) has announced a further easing of coronavirus restrictions.

Steven Marshall, the Premier of SA, on Friday announced that the state's borders would be re-opened to travelers from Queensland as of midnight on Friday night.

It comes after he announced that the borders would be reopened to Western Australia (WA), Tasmania and the Northern Territory (NT) in an attempt to revive the state's tourism industry.

However, none of those jurisdictions have reciprocated and opened their borders to travelers from SA.

Marshall said on Friday that it would be "great" if those borders were opened to South Australians.

"I emphasize this doesn't mean necessarily that South Australians can go into Queensland but we are lifting our state borders," he said.

"People from Queensland, whether they be Queensland citizens or whether they are South Australians returning -- they will not be required to do that 14 days of mandatory self-isolation."

Marshall had previously announced that SA's borders would be reopened to all jurisdictions by July 20. They now remain closed to only the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the two states hit hardest by coronavirus, Victoria and New South Wales (NSW).

As of Friday afternoon there had been 7,409 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, with all new cases in NSW or Victoria.

Those two states, which account for approximately 60 percent of Australia's population, now account for two thirds of the nation's coronavirus cases.

Marshall also announced on Friday that the maximum outdoor gathering size in SA will be increased to 300 from midnight and that the maximum number of people allowed in a single room of a hospitality venue will be increased from 20 to 75.

"South Australia is continuing to do extraordinarily well in terms of COVID-19 and we are continuing to open up the South Australian economy," he said. Enditem

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