The South Australian government in southern Australia announced on the 20th that it would lift the stay-at-home order four days ahead of schedule at 00:00 local time on the 21st, that is, from 9 o’clock last night Beijing time. The reason is that an infected person was found to have “lied” and misled the state government into overestimating the severity of the local COVID-19 epidemic and issued an emergency “lockdown order”.
South Australian Governor Steven Marshall said at a press conference on the 20th that a previous cluster infection occurred in a pizza shop. The man involved told the epidemiologist who tracked the infection path that he was diagnosed with COVID-19 after buying a pizza in the store. Therefore, the epidemic prevention department reasoned that this A man was infected in a very short time, and the virus strain must be very infectious. The South Australian government immediately announced a six-day stay-at-home order from the 19th.
However, a follow-up investigation found that the man actually worked in the pizza shop and worked with a part-time employee who was diagnosed with infection for several days. The part-time employee also worked as a security guard in a hotel receiving immigration quarantine personnel in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and was infected by a passenger entering the United Kingdom.
(Adelaide) Governor of South Australia Steven Marshall: It is an understatement to say that my lying behavior about this person is very high. This selfish behavior has put our whole state in a very difficult situation.
However, Marshall also appealed to the public not to take it lightly, saying that the epidemic prevention department is still trying to find thousands of people who may have had “dangerous contact” with the pizza restaurant.
It is not clear what the man’s motive for lying is. The South Australian Police Commissioner said that under the current law, it is impossible to punish the behavior of lying to displaced persons.
