A child under the age of two has died with COVID-19 in South Australia, premier says

The state has recorded 1,374 new infections.

The death was announced by South Australian Premier Steven Marshall. Source: AAP

A South Australian child under the age of two with COVID-19 has died.

Premier Steven Marshall confirmed the death on Thursday afternoon and said it would be referred to the coroner.

"This child was COVID-positive but the cause of death hasn't been determined yet," he told reporters.

The state has recorded 1,374 new infections.

Mr Marshall said he would not be giving details about whether the child was in hospital.

There were 23,420 PCR tests processed on Wednesday, returning 1,374 positive cases compared to 1,472 the previous day.

"So a slight reduction on the day before but these numbers are likely to bob around for some time," Mr Marshall said.

There continues to be 37 people in hospital, with four in intensive care including one on a ventilator.

'Do the right thing'

Following Thursday's national cabinet meeting, Mr Marshall said the definition of a close contact would be narrowed to a household or intimate contact of an infected person.

There will be exceptions such as "in more vulnerable communities and also where there is a known significant transmission event," Mr Marshall said.

He also urged people not to flood testing sites to ease strain on the system and that national cabinet had agreed to start relying more on rapid antigen tests.

The state has a stockpile of about 780,000 rapid antigen tests, with another nine million on order, needed for use in health settings and high-risk settings.

Mr Marshall urged retailers to "do the right thing" on pricing RATs for the general public.

The definition of a close contact was among the issues discussed at national cabinet. Source: AAP

About two-thirds of people currently getting PCR tests in the state were asymptomatic, he said.

"These people, really, quite frankly, should not be in the line unless they were close contacts of somebody who was a positive case," Mr Marshall told reporters.

"We really do want to free up our capacity for testing for those people who have symptoms."

Isolation periods for positive cases and their close contacts will also change on agreement by the national cabinet and Mr Marshall reminded South Australians the state was no longer chasing COVID-zero.

"We're at a different stage now and so we are no longer asking casual contacts to isolate," he said.

Narrowing the isolation periods and definition of close contacts means vital work forces, such as aged care, can continue, he added.