[ad_1]
At least 20 detectives are investigating the Adelaide pizzeria where an employee with a temporary graduate visa lied to contact the trackers, plunging South Australia into the country’s toughest blockade.
The worker, who initially claimed to be a customer of the Woodville Pizza Bar, is a 36-year-old Spanish man legally in Australia on a temporary graduate visa that expires in mid-December.
The pizzeria in North Adelaide has been under police surveillance since Prime Minister Steven Marshall made revelations about the worker’s lie on Friday.
On Saturday, South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens revealed more details about the worker and confirmed that police were investigating the store further.
READ MORE:
* South Australia blockade triggers panic buying with toilet paper pulled from shelves
* Covid-19: South Australia forced into six-day lockdown as ‘nasty’ group grows
* Covid-19: the coronavirus outbreak in South Australia shoots up to 17 cases
“There is a focus of attention that has turned to the pizzeria as a result of these circumstances … We are interested in speaking with at least two other people who we think can help us with our inquiries, and my researchers will remain in contact with in due time, “he said.
“I cannot elaborate on the circumstances, this is obviously now an ongoing investigation.”
A tough shutdown in South Australia is due to end Saturday night, three days earlier than originally planned after authorities uncovered the pizzeria worker’s lie.
123rf.com
An Adelaide pizzeria where an employee lied to contact the trackers is now under investigation.
Authorities originally thought the man in question had contracted the virus after purchasing a pizza at the store, raising fears that the Parafield coronavirus cluster was the result of a possible “super strain” that is transmitted through the food packaging.
Instead, the man had worked shifts at the pizzeria where he became infected while working alongside a security guard who had contracted the virus at the Peppers Waymouth quarantine hotel in Adelaide’s CBD. The Spaniard also worked as a kitchen helper at another quarantine hotel, the Stamford Hotel.
Stevens said it was “fair to say that if this person had been more direct with us, we would not have instituted a six-day lockdown.”
“This is the only element that pushed us from the level of restrictions that we were implementing on Tuesday to a much more severe regime,” he said.
But he defended the initial lockdown based on information known at the time.
“I think actions in the first instance where appropriate … the contact tracing process is not as straightforward as people might hope and the need to act quickly is always there.”
He also said authorities did not want to create a culture of fear around revealing information to contact tracers.
“We are taking a fair and objective approach to this, we do not get into preconceptions from an investigative point of view,” he said.
Marshall rejected suggestions that he had been “too harsh” on the pizzeria worker in his comments Friday.
“Providing false and misleading information involving a global pandemic is a serious matter that we take very seriously,” he said.
“There have to be consequences … we don’t want this behavior. When people give wrong information, it sends us on a course of action that could potentially put lives at risk.”
David Mariuz / Getty Images
Cars are seen lining up at a Covid testing center on November 17, 2020 in Adelaide, Australia.
A new case, already in quarantine
South Australia will continue its plans to lift its six-day lockdown early after only one new case of COVID-19 was recorded on Saturday, following 19,000 tests on Friday.
The new case is a partner of an existing case and is already in quarantine. “They pose no risk to the community,” said Chief Health Professor Nicola Spurrier.
Parafield’s group now covers 26 cases, and more than 5,400 contacts are isolated.
But Professor Spurrier said SA Health was still working to reach 40 close contacts with whom it had not yet been able to reach. “That’s a big boost today,” he said.
Only one known active case of COVID-19 remains in Victoria, and the state recorded its 22nd consecutive day with no new coronavirus cases or deaths on Saturday. NSW posted its first 14-day run without locally transmitted coronavirus cases since the Crossroads Hotel cluster sparked a virus resurgence in the state. It marks a full incubation period of two weeks without the virus spreading through the community.
Professor Spurrier also defended her reasoning for the harsh state lockdown, praising the South Australian authorities for taking faster action than their counterparts in Victoria and New South Wales.
“This was … long before people clicked on things in Victoria, before the Crossroads Hotel cluster and the subsequent NSW seeding,” he said.
Marshall said South Australians were “absolutely delighted that from midnight tonight we will lift the stay-at-home order.”
But he said the state “was not out of the woods yet.”
“The advice from health experts that we have received is that we are still managing a very dangerous group and although we are easing those restrictions, we are still very concerned about this group.
Stevens said the state aimed to remove all new restrictions by December 1 if all coronavirus clusters are contained. South Australia would also remove its border restriction with Victoria on that date.
