Medical personnel speak to people at a station at Adelaide’s Parafield Airport during the first day of the statewide total lockdown to combat the Covid-19 coronavirus on November 18, 2020 (Photo by Brenton EDWARDS / AFP).
Prime Minister Steven Marshall said that a man who claimed to be a customer at a pizzeria, leading authorities to believe that the strain was virulent enough to be transmitted through a take-out box, actually worked there. .
- AFP Adelaide
- Last update: November 20, 2020 8:30 AM IST
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South Australia’s six-day “circuit breaker” lockout will be broken, authorities said Friday, blaming a pizza man who misled contact trackers about how he contracted the virus. Prime Minister Steven Marshall indicated that a harsh lockdown for the state’s nearly two million residents would end late Saturday, at least two days earlier than planned.
Marshall said a man who claimed to be a customer at a pizzeria, leading authorities to believe that the strain was virulent enough to be transmitted through a takeout box, actually worked there.
“One of the close contacts linked to the Woodville pizzeria deliberately misled our contact tracing team,” Marshall said. “Their story didn’t add up. We chased them. Now we know they lied.”
Authorities stressed that the costly closure was still necessary and that the pizza shop’s customers should still show up for testing.
On Wednesday, they ordered the closure of schools, stores, pubs, factories and even takeout restaurants and stay-at-home orders were issued for residents across the state.
Since then, tens of thousands of tests have shown no new community transmission and the group totals just 25 cases, leading to allegations that authorities overreacted.
People in Adelaide and the rest of the state will be able to leave their homes immediately to exercise, with most other restrictions easing on Saturday night.
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