Coronavirus: South Australia’s lockdown sparked by one man’s ‘lie’; India hits 9 million cases
- The man had falsely told contact tracers he was a pizza customer when he was actually a worker at the store which had a positive case
- Meanwhile, China’s foreign minister will visit Japan to discuss a business travel bubble, while South Korea warns people against letting their guard down
South Australia’s drastic six-day state lockdown was triggered by a “lie” to contact tracers from a single individual and restrictions across the state would now be lifted much sooner than first planned, authorities said on Friday.
The shock announcement came just two days after the state government ordered people to stay at home and shut many businesses to combat what was considered a highly contagious outbreak of coronavirus.
South Australia state Premier Steven Marshall told a media conference that one man at a pizza bar tied to the outbreak had lied to contact tracers, claiming he had only bought a pizza there when he was actually working at the shop.
Authorities had thought he had caught the virus during a very short exposure, when in fact he had been working several shifts with another positive case.
Because of the lie, authorities believed the strain of virus was highly contagious, taking 24 hours or less for a newly infected person to become infectious to others.
“To say I am fuming about the actions of this individual is an absolute understatement,” Marshall told stunned reporters. “This selfish actions of this individual have put our whole state in a very difficult situation.”
