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1/ November 2020 has seen a shift in the Australian covid-19 landscape. As Victoria achieved elimination and NSW edges closer to it, one formerly "covid-free" state has stolen all the headlines. Grab a pie floater, a FUIC or a Coopers while I cover South Australia:
The existence of a COVID-19 cluster was very fortunately detected by a junior doctor noticing an 80 year old woman with a dry cough. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-21/sa-coronavirus-outbreak-detected-by-junior-doctor/12907610
An infected cleaner (the woman's daughter) was able to infect 16 members of their family. Because SA were slow off the mark, it meant there was a big jump in positive tests. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/army-on-standby-as-sa-coronavirus-cluster-grows/news-story/ea751bfe8b52aa22aea3aa4e6f746753
How did it get to this extent? Medi hotel testing was voluntary not compulsory. https://indaily.com.au/news/2020/11/16/spurrier-was-concerned-about-medi-hotel-cases-before-cluster-breakout/
There's additional rumours (no verified source) that a kid was visibly coughing at Mawson Lakes Primary School, but the school did nothing. There's no rules in SA forcing sick kids to get tested.
SA said the family was very large and that's why it spread so quickly. It later admitted the family had a superspreader gathering.
SA initially claimed the cleaner was the index case and infected via surface transmission. It was later revealed that the index case was a security guard. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-25/explainer-what-we-know-about-south-australia-coronavirus-cluster/12918444
They still don't know how that person became infected
SA's contact tracers did some very good work and were able to list a comprehensive list of venues where infected cases attended. The only problem was that barely any of these venues had QR code or pen and paper tracing in place (unlike NSW, QLD, VIC, ACT).
After some initial common sense restrictions, SA then went into a 6 day lockdown which was even harsher than Melbourne's stage 4, banning exercise and takeaway because they thought they had a superstrain which spread through surfaces and asymptomatically. https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/sa-lockdown-to-stamp-out-virulent-covid-19-strain-20201118-p56fj9
The idea of a superstrain was dismissed by experts https://www.smh.com.au/national/experts-rubbish-sa-coronavirus-super-strain-claims-20201119-p56g51.html
36 hours into that lockdown, SA abruptly end it, after they reveal a pizza worker (who also works in hotel quarantine) misled contact tracers. He claimed he simply got a pizza, but actually worked at the pizza shop. https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/sa-covid-lockdown-started-and-ended-with-woodville-pizza-bar-employee-c-1618380
This meant one person's lie to contact tracers was enough for SA to believe there was a super-strain worthy of a lockdown harsher than Victoria.
Marshall claimed the person was a teenager. He was in fact a 36 year old Spaniard on a student visa. https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/sa-covid-lockdown-investigated-by-woodville-pizza-shop-taskforce-c-1623015.amp
Marshall then orders a full blown police investigation into the man whose lie put SA into lockdown. They seize his phones and laptop. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-24/what-we-know-so-far-about-taskforce-protect-pizza-bar-probe/12912402
SA then revealed modelling stating that their lockdown saved them from a second wave. There is no circumstancial evidence to suggest this as all close contacts were identified by tracers. https://www.southernriverinanews.com.au/national/2020/11/22/2194540/sa-faced-serious-second-wave-of-covid
Returning back to SA HQ woes, two people who presumably tested positive because of overseas acquisition were found to have acquired it from Peppers Waymouth itself https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-24/two-coronavirus-cases-now-linked-to-south-australia-cluster/12915862
In the midst of this SA finally decides to separate positive cases in HQ from non-positive returnees, which NSW& Queensland had been doing for months. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-25/sa-medi-hotels-to-be-overhauled-amid-coronavirus-cluster/12917858
Early last week a teenage girl at Woodville High School tests positive. SA claims this person got infected from simply picking up a pizza from Woodville Pizza: the criteria for SA's super lockdown. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-26/student-got-coronavirus-ordering-a-pizza-but-no-lockdown-in-sa/12924252
On Sunday November 29, SA made headlines again when it revealed that a casual contact egregiously broke quarantine and did a day's worth of shopping. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/29/south-australians-urged-to-get-covid-tests-after-man-with-virus-goes-out-and-about-in-adelaide
The next day they backtrack and say the person was never ordered to quarantine because they were a casual contact. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-30/sa-health-authorities-defend-man-over-coronavirus-quarantine/12933326
But not after 24 hours of social media outrage equivalent to a character assassination.
And that's the highlights so far. Who knows what hijinks will happen next? This is probably going to burn out like the NSW & QLD clusters and contact tracing has been miles better than Victoria before August. Still SAs public health messaging has been really bad.
