An informed public can help keep their communities safe, said Member for Frome Geoff Brock MP.

Mr Brock is calling for SA Health to provide a clearer and more focussed map of COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks in South Australia, after several complaints from constituents that the current mapping is vague and hard to decipher.

“I have written twice this month to Minister for Health Stephan Wade asking for an improved visual ‘heat’ map,” Mr Brock said.

“While the publicly available map shows a numeric range of cases within each local government area, I feel it does not provide the greatest transparency when it comes to identifying the locations where confirmed cases have been identified.”

Mr Brock said he did not wish to identify individual cases or their exact location, but it would be more transparent and informative for communities if they knew which townships or suburbs were involved.

“The Melbourne heat map, for example, is far more detailed and provides a much clearer picture – and something similar would help keep our communities safe.

“The current information and the way that the current South Australian pandemic mapping indicates incidents does not allay people’s concerns and is not what we, as a community, need to be aware of,” Mr Brock said.

“SA Health needs to provide more transparency of locations where confirmed COVID-19 cases are, or have been, residing.”

Mr Brock said the South Australian maps were not clear enough when enlarged to assist people in reading the information they contained and it would be more helpful to have individual ‘regional’ maps, similar to the metropolitan map.

“I understand the great work that SA Health is doing and I congratulate everyone who is dedicating their service to this issue, however, people from regional locations would appreciate better and more transparent information to help allay concerns and inform the community.”