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Sydneysiders will be able to travel into South Australia on the weekend, as long as no locally acquired cases are recorded in the next two days.
But visitors will need to be tested on day one, five and 12 of their stay and must isolate until they receive a negative result from their first swab.
Health authorities were waiting for the hotspot area to go 14 days without any recorded cases of community transmission before easing border restrictions.
If no new locally acquired cases are recorded in Greater Sydney, the borders will open to Sydneysiders as of 12.01am on Sunday.
Travellers from outside of the Greater Sydney area will have no restrictions and do not need to be tested.
Anyone who arrived from the area and is currently quarantining in the state will also be allowed to leave isolation on Sunday.
They must comply with the day one, five and 12 testing regime, but is subject to where they are in the 14 days of their isolation.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said it was the “most reasonable step” that allowed freedom of movement between the two states.
“We’re trying to find that middle ground position for protecting South Australians, but enabling as much travel as possible between states and territories so this is a good step forward,” he said on Thursday.
“We’ll continue to monitor the situation in NSW and as soon as we can remove that PCR testing obligation for Greater Sydney, we’ll certainly do that but it’s something we’re waiting to see how that unfolds.”
Mr Stevens, who is also the State Coordinator, said is was likely the testing requirement for Greater Sydney travellers would remain in place for a further 14 days.
“There are some indicators that we would be looking for that give us that level of confidence that there is no underlying community transmission issues.
“Once we see that then we’re obviously going to move as quickly as we can to lift all restrictions.”
Deputy chief public health officer Michael Cusack said SA authorities were tracking the Berala and Avalon clusters and were “pleased” they have gone almost two weeks without any further cases.
He said they will continue to keep “a close eye on the situation” and look at other measures, like wastewater testing, which could suggest positive cases in the community.
“There have been a couple of cases there which they haven’t been able to track back to where those cases arose but other than that, they have managed to pinpoint where (most) cases have come from,” Dr Cusack said.
“After 12 days of fairly high levels of testing, we have a fair degree of confidence.”
He said the state’s testing rates had “dropped off”, which he noted was in line with other jurisdictions, and stressed the importance of getting tested if symptoms present.
“When we see in the region of 2000 tests a day, that is a cause for anxiety in public health and I would be really encouraging people that even if you have just the mildest of symptoms please get yourself tested.”
All travellers entering SA need to submit an online Cross Border from and masks must be worn inside Adelaide Airport.
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