South Australia comes out of lockdown early after man linked to outbreak ‘lied’ to contact tracers

The outbreak in Parafield triggered drastic measures from the state's government

Credit: GETTY IMAGES

South Australia will end its circuit-breaker lockdown earlier than expected after it was discovered that a man connected to a recent outbreak had lied to contact tracers.

Steven Marshall, the state’s premier, said on Friday that he was curtailing drastic restrictions because one man at a pizza bar tied to a cluster of new cases had "deliberately misled" officials, claiming he had only bought a pizza there when he was actually working at the shop.

The outbreak in Parafield had sparked an urgent six-day lockdown in which the government ordered South Australia’s nearly 2 million people to stay at home and forced the closure of many businesses. 

"To say I am fuming about the actions of this individual is an absolute understatement," Mr Marshall said.

"The selfish actions of this individual have put our whole state in a very difficult situation."

Adelaide was deserted on Thursday after the lockdown was imposed

Credit: EPA

Asked how the lie was discovered, Mr Marshall said: "Contact tracers have continued detailed case histories with confirmed cases. What those investigations showed is that one of the close contacts linked to the Woodville pizza bar deliberately misled our contact-tracing team.

"Their story didn’t add up. We pursued them. We now know that they lied."

Authorities had thought he had caught the virus during a very short exposure, when in fact he had been working with another positive case.

Because of the lie, authorities believed the strain of virus was highly contagious, taking 24 hours or less for a newly infected person to become infectious to others.

Grant Stevens, the state’s police commissioner, said the state would not have gone into lockdown had the person not lied.

"The lie was the person claimed that they had purchased a pizza from the pizza shop, when in fact they were working there and had been working there for several shifts," Mr Stevens said.

"That clearly changes the circumstances and had this person been truthful to the contact-tracing teams, we would not have gone into a six-day lockdown.

He added: "The second consequence of that lie is this person has numerous associates and persons of interest that we are now trying to identify and locate that we would not have had to do so had they been truthful from the beginning.

"There is an absolute need for us to move quickly over the next 24 to 36 hours to identify and locate these people so we know we have eliminated the risk of this particular strain spreading further into the community."

Coronavirus Australia Spotlight Chart — Cases default

Mr Marshall called the behaviour of the individual "disgraceful".

"Just as we have acted immediately to put restrictions in place to keep South Australians safe, we are going to act to lift them much sooner than previously advised," he said. 

"I will not let the disgraceful conduct of a single individual keep SA in these circuit breaker conditions one day longer than what is necessary."

Restrictions will be lifted early with the stay-at-home order ending at midnight on Saturday when most businesses will also be allowed to open.

However, Mr Marshall added that the threat to his state from the cluster of cases has not passed.

"This is still a very dangerous cluster and our our health experts remain extremely concerned," he said.

Coronavirus infections have slowed dramatically in recent weeks in Australia, with South Australia one of the few places still recording community transmission of the disease.

The state reported three new cases on Friday, all of which are connected to the cluster and all of the people infected are in quarantine.

The state, home to about 1.8 million people, has recorded 25 cases from the latest cluster, linked to a returned traveller from the UK.

The number of new cases were still expected to rise over the next few days, but the outbreak was not as alarming as first feared.

Mr Marshall said the state will immediately ease some restrictions, including allowing people to leave their homes to exercise.