How One Lie Sent An Entire State into Lockdown
South Australia’s response to untruthful Covid-19 contract tracing information
South Australia have so far remained relatively unscathed by the effects of the corona virus pandemic. Boarder monitoring, strict testing regimes and intensive contract tracing efforts have so far been able to keep the general public safe from this infectious disease. A series of Medihotels have been successful in containing confirmed cases of Covid-19 through mandated quarantine expectations for anyone travelling into the state from overseas and for those that have been in direct contact with a confirmed case. After a hard an immediate response to control the spread during the early days of community transmissions, the general public have been able to relax back into their lives in a pretty normal way…well, that was until early this week.
On the 15th of November, it was announced that a small cluster of confirmed cases of Covid-19 linked to one of the Medihotels had been identified, and over the coming few days some community restrictions were introduced. Then, on Wednesday the 18th of November, an urgent announcement from Premier Steven Marshall revealed the plan for an almost immediately imposed state-wide lockdown. From midnight Wednesday, all citizens were to remain at home unless they were essential workers. Schools and preschools were to close to all except children of essential workers and weddings and funerals were cancelled. Following this, other states and territories quickly closed their boarders to South Australia and a sense of panic ensued, as people rushed to the supermarkets to clear the shelves in preparation for lockdown. The madness at the shopping centres resulted in strong police presence being required at all major supermarkets across the state.
For the first time, South Australians were being urged to wear masks outside the home, although this presented additional challenges as most people were not yet able to acquire a mask given the fast-paced and unexpected nature of this lockdown.
So our state quickly and dutifully retuned home. Business closed their doors once again and some people rushed to the alter, squeezing in their weddings before the midnight deadline. Then, on Friday afternoon Premier Steven Marshall announced another urgent announcement. When he appeared, visibly angry, the whole state tuned in, expecting to hear of a significant spike in Covid-19 cases. What we got instead, was the revelation that the lockdown was instigated as a result of information provided from a single person in regard to the details surrounding their exposure. It was determined that this information was in fact based on a lie.
The person involved had claimed that he had become infected from touching a pizza box that had been delivered to his home from a pizza bar where known cases were also confirmed. This sent our authorities into a panic. If this person caught the virus from a pizza box delivery, how many others may have been infected in the same way? Was this an even more infections strain of the virus? So many questions and concerns were raised in regards to this information.
It turns out that this person actually worked part-time at the pizza place, possibly illegally, and therefore the efforts of contract tracing teams would have been sufficient in identifying any other potential cases if they had been given the correct information. The premier said that the need for a lockdown was based purely on the information provided to authorities from this one person, and that information was now known to be untruthful.
The response to this announcement is as would be expected. The entire state seems angry at this person and wants to know about penalties for such a significant and costly lie. The cost to our government and businesses, even over this short lockdown period is significant. Whilst a great sense of relief is certainly felt to know that our great state is once again safe, the community anger is also strong.
It has now been revealed that a task force has been set up to investigate the actions of this individual to determine if a legal offence has been committed. If this is the case it seems that our Premier, among others, are certainly prepared to throw the book at him.
So what have I learned over our 3 days of lockdown? Firstly, the response across the state was astounding. People were able to act quickly, and besides the unnecessary panic at the supermarket, the lockdown itself was enacted efficiently and effectively. At the end of the day, I think that given the fact that Covid-19 isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, this lockdown has provided our state with the opportunity to practice — not unlike a fire drill in a school. At least now we know what to do should this situation arise again and I hope the individual at the heart of this issue has learned a valuable lesson.
