"Not an Employee but a Customer": South Australia Locked Down Due to COVID-19 Patient's Lie... Yet No Punishment Possible?

[Image source= Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Eun-young] In Australia, a case occurred where 1.7 million people experienced inconvenience due to a statewide lockdown caused by a COVID-19 positive patient's lie. However, unlike in South Korea, there are no punishment provisions under local law, sparking controversy.

According to foreign media on the 20th, the South Australia state government implemented a strict lockdown across the state for six days starting from the 18th.

As a result, residents were completely banned from going out, and schools, restaurants, cafes, and other establishments were all closed. Weddings and funerals were also prohibited.

The state government issued the lockdown order, enduring citizens' inconvenience and enormous economic damage, because after the first local infection case since April, a total of 36 people tested positive, raising concerns about rapid spread.

In particular, the testimony of an employee at a pizza shop where a COVID-19 cluster infection occurred was decisive.

He worked as a security guard at a nearby hotel and also worked part-time at the pizza shop, where he was infected by another security guard. However, during the epidemiological investigation, he concealed the truth by stating, "I did not work at the pizza shop," and claimed he only visited the store as a customer and took out packaged pizza.

The state government believed his claim that he was infected after visiting the pizza shop as a customer and judged that the virus had already spread widely to the general public through the pizza shop. Consequently, they implemented a strict six-day lockdown across the entire state.

However, the lie was exposed in just three days. It was revealed that this confirmed patient was not infected by visiting the pizza shop as a customer but through contact with another security guard.

When the false statement was uncovered, the state government and citizens expressed strong anger. Authorities reportedly had to consider deploying police personnel to prepare for possible retaliation by the general public against the pizza shop.

On the 2nd (local time), the door of a store in Glenroy, Melbourne, Australia, was closed. The state of Victoria, which governs Melbourne, is facing a 'second wave' crisis of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and has decided to lock down some suburban areas with concentrated new confirmed cases until the 27th. [Image source = Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, despite over one million citizens experiencing inconvenience and the state suffering enormous economic damage due to this lie, the pizza shop employee is unlikely to be punished under local law.

Although there are laws related to infectious diseases, they only require providing information during epidemiological investigations and do not include punishment provisions for failing to give truthful answers.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said, "Our entire state has been placed in a very difficult situation due to one individual's selfish behavior," and expressed regret, saying, "If it had been revealed sooner that the confirmed patient worked at the pizza shop, the lockdown order might have been avoided."

Meanwhile, South Korea's Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act stipulates that if false statements are made during epidemiological investigations, imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million won can be imposed. In fact, in May, an instructor at an academy in Incheon who caused a chain infection by lying about their occupation and movements during an epidemiological investigation after contracting COVID-19 was sentenced to six months in prison.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.