South Australia has recorded another two COVID-linked deaths in the latest reporting period — both women aged in their 80s.
The number of new cases is 1,289, which is slightly fewer than Friday.
There are 218 people in hospital with the virus, including 16 in intensive care and four people requiring a ventilator.
The total number of active cases stands at 16,041 — another slight reduction.
The latest fatal cases take the number of COVID-linked deaths in SA since the start of the pandemic to 127.
Earlier on Saturday, the SA opposition accused the Premier of "blatantly politicising" the COVID-19 pandemic by coupling pre-election project announcements with daily case updates.
At a press conference on Saturday, Premier Steven Marshall first outlined details of a funding boost for a suburban road upgrade before providing preliminary figures on new cases.
"We've further reduced positive cases in South Australia, that's great news."
At media conferences in the past fortnight, the delivery of COVID information has been preceded by announcements on transport projects, education policy, and a short-stay unit at Modbury Hospital.
Labor accused the Premier of "hijacking daily COVID-19 updates" in the lead-up to the March election, saying the government was "hell-bent on continuing to use the pandemic for political purposes".
"The Premier has been blatantly politicising the management of the pandemic here in South Australia," Shadow Treasurer Stephen Mullighan said.
"We've seen this increasingly over the last couple of months.
The SA government declined to comment in response to that accusation.
Mr Mullighan also referred to comments by Liberal MP Nick McBride on the November border reopening, as well as a leaked email from SA's hotels lobby in which it was implied that, at a meeting, the Premier had said he would try to persuade the Police Commissioner to lift restrictions on hospitality venues.
Australian Hotels Association (AHA) general manager Ian Horne later clarified that the words in the email were his, not the Premier's, and Mr Marshall emphatically rejected suggestions that any agreement had been struck.
The Premier said the government had already committed to a support package that was "the most generous in the country" for businesses, including hospitality.
He said work to further relax restrictions would be conducted in the coming days.
"We are going to be considering further modelling early this week ahead of decisions that will be announced at the end of the week," he said.
Ambulance union begins industrial action
Meanwhile, the state's ambulance union has launched industrial action after negotiations with the government broke down.
Tensions between both parties have increased in recent weeks, with the SA Ambulance Employees Association (AEA) expressing concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on resource levels and response times.
Paramedics will stop filling in case cards for patients taken to hospital, meaning the SA Ambulance Service (SAAS) will not be able to charge them.
"Anyone that does receive ambulance transport to hospital … will not receive a bill for those services," AEA secretary Leah Watkins said.
The move comes after the government referred the long-running industrial dispute to the state's employment tribunal.
"Ambos have gone four years without a pay rise and they would just simply like an offer to be on the table and that's not the case," Ms Watkins said.
"This government have pursued a quite hostile agenda in terms of wanting to strip penalties and allowances and conditions off members."
But the Premier said SAAS was the "best-funded ambulance service on mainland Australia", and that arbitration was now the only option.
"We should have struck a deal by now. They haven't been satisfied with what we've put forward," he said.
"The union is still not satisfied so I think the only course of action now is to give it to the independent umpire."
