South Australia Revokes Draconian Lockdown After Revelation One Person Lied To Contact-Tracers
ZeroHedge.com
Update (0810ET): South Australia has revoked its draconian lockdown, which banned people from even walking their dogs, after it was revealed that just one person lied to contact tracers.
The lockdown took effect yesterday and banned people from leaving their homes unless for emergency medical reasons or to buy food.
Police even confirmed via Twitter that people who walked their dogs outside would be in violation of the law, prompting a huge backlash.
But now, as Summit News’ Paul Joseph Watson reports, just a day later, the lockdown is set to be revoked after authorities admitted that the one person who sparked the decision had lied to contact tracers.
“South Australia Premier Steven Marshall announced the explosive finding during a Friday press conference, saying that the individual in question purposely misled contact tracers,” reports RT.
“Though he told them he had visited a pizza bar linked to a local outbreak only once, he in fact worked at the establishment and had spent several shifts there during the period in question.”
The government has now acknowledged that the man, who was initially blamed for being a ‘super spreader’, had in fact not been the source of what authorities claimed was a super-infectious strain of the virus.
“Their story didn’t add up. We pursued them. We now know that they lied,” said South Australia Premier Steven Marshall.
Maybe authorities should have confirmed the man’s story before announcing their draconian lockdown? Just a thought.
As of Saturday, the region will now move back into its previous lockdown tier, with many restrictions being lifted again.
Respondents on Twitter slammed the government for imposing the crippling lockdown on the basis of one erroneous case at a pizza place.
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As we detailed earlier, South Australia has banned outdoor exercise and dog-walking for six days starting Thursday as health officials push a 6-day “circuit-breaker” lockdown that they hope will put them ahead of a new cluster that reportedly involves an even deadlier new strain of the coronavirus.
The new restrictions, announced on Wednesday, permit only one person per household to leave their home each day, and only for “essential” reasons, which, for the first time in the English-speaking world, doesn’t include exercise or walking of one’s dog. It’s perhaps the most restrictive lockdown in the region since China’s lockdown in Wuhan. Though, to be sure, officials are insisting that it will only last for 6 days, and that afterward, the “Parafield Cluster” (the cause of all this consternation), will be defeated.
All non-essential workers must stay home, and people can only go out for groceries and medical supplies.
One woman in Australia triggered an international backlash to the new measures when she tweeted a question asking if she could take her dog for a walk to use the bathroom.
South Australia police replied that she “cannot” leave the house to walk the dog, or for any other ‘non-essential’ purpose: “Hi Andrea, You cannot leave the house to walk the dog or to exercise,” the Twitter account for the South Australia Police told a woman who asked whether or not she could leave her home to walk her dog,” the tweet read.
Hi Andrea, You cannot leave the house to walk the dog or to exercise.
— South Australia Police (@SAPoliceNews) November 18, 2020
The has documented a total of 34 active cases as of Thursday evening local time (it’s early Friday right now in South Australia), after several people were infected in the city of Adelaide, the state capital.
Health officials warned that the virus strain was particularly “nasty” due to its virulence, and the fact that many patients are asymptomatic, allowing the virus to spread more quickly.
But some users responding to Andrea’s viral tweet were shocked to see police tell a private citizen that they could face arrest for walking their dog outside.
The Adelaide cluster has been traced back to a cleaner at a quarantine hotel who was somehow infected, the carried the infection to the outside world.