The Indian cricket team, currently in Sydney, is training with pink season balls. The first test match between India-Australia will be a rare day-night affair at Adelaide where pink balls will be used. Last week, the scary news from Adelaide meant the venue would be shifted. Sydney and Melbourne offered themselves as candidates.
On Wednesday, 18 November, the State of South
Australia announced a draconian 6-day lockdown. On 1 November, Australia had zero
cases nationwide. Despite rigorous testing, South Australia has had only 557
cases and 4 deaths so far. But now some traveller had brought from the UK a
super-contagious virus - spread by merely touching the delivery boxes.
Following the emergency order, Adelaide international
airport was closed. Other Australian states closed borders for people from
South Australia. Weddings and funerals were cancelled, elective surgeries banned.
Schools and universities were hurriedly shut, any celebrations scrapped. All
pubs and restaurants were shut, compelling them to waste perishable food. Most
businesses were closed. Vast traffic jams were seen, particularly across Adelaide,
with residents queuing up for hours to get themselves tested. 1.7 million
people were thrown into one of the world’s strictest lockdowns. 4000 people were
sent into quarantine centres. As is typical of an Australian state, the area of
South Australia is more than 1 million sq km. Except for the presence of
police, the streets, the city centers were completely barren.
A public health alert was issued urging anyone who had
ordered food from Adelaide’s Woodville Pizza Bar over a ten-day period to immediately
isolate and seek a coronavirus test. The Chief Public Health Officer was
already worried the virus seemed to be reproducing rapidly.
As to the economic damage caused by the lockdown, varying
estimates are in millions of Aussie dollars.
*****
On the third day, Friday, Steven Marshall, the South Australian
premier, appeared on TV to give an update. In the press conference, he looked grim, angry, confused and embarrassed.
The facts were simple: a security guard at the
Woodville Pizza bar was infected with Covid-19. A worker at hotel Stamford was
also infected. When the contact tracers spoke to the hotel worker, he said he
had ordered a takeaway pizza from the Woodville Pizza bar. This led to the suspicion
that virus can be transmitted simply by touching the pizza box, something
unheard of anywhere before. To prevent the pizza pandemic, a strict circuit-breaker
lockdown was necessary.
The authorities later found out that the hotel worker had
simply lied. He was actually working at the Woodville Pizza bar, his second job.
As to why he deliberately lied is not known. Police were not allowed to reveal
his name for his own safety, but they revealed it was a 36-year-old male from
Spain, on a graduate visa. It is possible he didn’t want the contact tracers to
know he was working in two places. His single deliberate lie threw an entire state
into lockdown.
*****
Police issued 337 cautions and 157 fines for breaches
of lockdown measures. Paradoxically, the 36-year-old Pizza liar can’t be
charged or fined, because lying is not a crime. His electronic devices are
confiscated. The Police are scrutinizing them to find out if he can be charged
under any crime. Under some pretext, he can be sent back to Spain when his visa
expires in December.
A message on the Pizza Bar’s Google review page reads:
“Incompetent staff. They forgot my garlic bread. They also put the whole state
into lockdown.”
****
Following the premier’s TV conference, the lockdown
ended. The Indian cricketers have started training with the pink balls. In the
coming days, if every South Australian is truthful with the contact tracers,
the first cricket test match will happen in Adelaide as scheduled.
Ravi
The poor guy probably thought he would get sacked if said he was working two jobs. Sadly, he probably had to work two jobs to earn a living wage.
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