South Australia faux pas: Pizza worker's 'lie' forced lockdown

When South Australia decided to enter a state-wide lockdown it was based on a lie told by a man tested positive for Covid-19 and then began a series of assumptions which culminated in lockdown.

Pizza worker's lie - I went to purchase pizza

A man who worked shifts at a pizza shop told the authorities that he visited the shop to purchase a pizza. He hid the fact that he worked at the shop where another person reported positive for Covid-19.

One lie and series of missteps

This led the health authorities to believe that this man contracted the virus after a brief visit to the pizza shop. Since the visit was brief the authorities further assumed that the strain of this Covid-19 was very contagious.

According to a report in BBC, South Australia decided to enter a state-wide lockdown based on a lie told by a man with Covid-19 about his link to a pizza shop, police say. The strict lockdown began on Wednesday after the state detected 36 infections, including its first locally acquired cases since April.

What about serious and aggressive contact tracing?

But this would have been avoided if the man had told the truth, that he worked shifts at the shop, BBC reported officials as saying.

The report further states that Australia has relied on lockdowns, widespread testing and aggressive contact tracing to push daily infections close to zero.

But the imposition of the lockdown based on one lie and false assumptions raise serious questions about the 'contact tracing' process being adopted by the authorities.

Since the man confessed to visiting the pizza shop, further investigation like checking the CCTV footage at the pizza shop and verifying it with the staff members would have revealed the reality.

Some other people must have come into his contact at the pizza shop and identifying them requires the help of pizza staff at that shop. But it appears, one statement of the man was not logically followed up before taking a big step like imposing lockdown.

Logically if the Covid-19 virus was so widespread at the pizza shop then it would have infected other staff members at the shop but authorities seemed to have formed their opinion based on one lie.

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