Pizza Worker’s ‘Lie’ Forced State-Wide Lockdown in South Australia
Six-Day Long Lockdown Could Have Been Avoided If the Individual Haven’t Lied To the Contact Tracing Team
The state of South Australia has decided to enforce a state-wide lockdown based on a lie told by an individual who has been diagnosed with coronavirus regarding his link with a pizzeria. The harsh restrictions for state-wide lockdown have been initiated on Wednesday after it was decided by the local government; due to 36 new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed, including the first case of locally acquired infection since the month of April.
The entire issue would have been easily avoidable if the individual had reported truthfully to the police department that he actually worked as a part-time job at the pizza shop; instead, he said that he only went there to buy himself a pizza.
Misleading lie caused the strict lockdown
The misleading information that resulted in state-wide lockdown prompted the healthcare authorities to assume that the person locally acquired the contagious infection while during a brief interaction at the local pizzeria, and the mutated strain could possibly be highly transmittable.
The state Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall, regarding the reinstating of state-wide lockdown, stated in a press conference that he is extremely angry at this irresponsible action. He also said that the appropriate punishment would also be given to the individual that caused the unnecessary commotion. The entire nation of Australia has been relaying of lockdowns along with massive community testing and insistent contact tracing in an attempt to push the daily number of infections towards zero.
The penalty against the pizzeria worker’s lie that caused state-wide lockdown would not include any police involvement as there is no punishment associated with telling lies said the Police Commissioner of South Australia Grant Stevens.
Regarding the lie, He said that the local police department in association with the healthcare officials was operating on an assertion that the individual simply went to a pizza shop, had a very short duration exposure with the working staff, and walked away having contacted the COVID-19 infectious strain.
Now it has been confirmed that they had a brief, but close physical contact with another individual was being diagnosed with COVID-19, which has altered the dynamics significantly. Had the individual been honest from the beginning with the contact-tracing workers that contacted him, there would not have been another strict state-wide lockdown for six days.
Reduction in coronavirus cases across Australia
According to the State officials, they are most likely to remove the state-wide lockdown just after three days of its statement on Wednesday, which is three days prior to previously planned. The number of new coronavirus cases has also drastically reduced across the country, as only three new cases were reported on Friday in the region.
The local police department was unable to identify the individual whose lie caused the state-wide lockdown, only that he was working a shift at the Woodville Pizza Bar located in Adelaide.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the person who lied also worked alongside a security guard diagnosed with the coronavirus, who acquired the viral strain while working at a quarantined hotel at the center of the COVID-19 outbreak that prompted the state of South Australia to go on extremely high alert at the start of this week on Monday.
When asked regarding providing additional security to the pizza shop, as the location might attract negative reaction due to the public anger prompted by the state-wide lockdown, the state Premier Stevens said that he, along with the authorities, are considering all possibilities.
The COVID-19 outbreak in South Australia is followed by a victory in the state of Victoria as they were able to fight against the deadly second wave of COVID-19 infection that has caused around 800 deaths. Local officials confirmed that no new coronavirus case or deaths had been diagnosed in the past 21 days, after the state capital Melbourne underwent a four month-long lockdown with very harsh restrictions.
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