SAVE SOME COVIDIOT IRE FOR SYSTEM
We are all angry at the man who did this. The 31-year-old from NSW escaped hotel quarantine after arriving in Tasmania without a G2G pass on Monday night.
He was later found to be Covid-positive after visiting a private residence at Bridgewater that night, as well as Montrose Park from 11.30pm-1.30am on October 12 and 13.
On Tuesday, from 3.30pm-4pm, the man was in the Bridgewater Woolworths on Green Point Rd.
Once he was finally apprehended later that day police took him to the Fountainside Hotel, where he remains under guard in quarantine.
Authorities say he’s been extremely uncooperative and hasn’t given contact tracers the full story in relation to his movements – despite the fact southern Tasmania has been brought to a standstill because of his reckless and, frankly, boneheaded actions.
We shouldn’t, however, let our collective resentment towards this man completely blind us to the glaring failures that led to his escape and subsequent jaunt out in the community.
That the escapee was able to slip out of quarantine at the TraveLodge Hotel undetected soon after he’d been taken there is an indictment on Tasmania’s hotel quarantine system. There’s really no way of sugar-coating it.
We still don’t know how exactly it happened, nor who or what was to blame. An investigation is under way, and that’s a good thing.
Public Health has been too timid about releasing information relating to the case. Dr Mark Veitch said identifying him might make others less likely to come forward if they have the virus, but that entirely ignores the fact this individual flouted the rules and deliberately put others at risk.
Perhaps by naming him we deter others from acting as irresponsibly. Had the Mercury not published his photo, would people have been able to identify him as having attended Woolworths?
Premier Peter Gutwein has urged Tasmania Police to “throw the book” at the Covidiot, saying he believes two fines totalling $3100 do not represent a sufficient punishment.
“It’s not lost on anyone that it’s taken one individual to do the wrong thing and leave the heavy lifting to everyone else,” the Premier said on Saturday. “That is just not on.”
He’s right; it’s not on. But neither is the incompetence that enabled him to do the wrong thing in the first place.
It’s hoped that the Premier doesn’t seek to harness the community anger towards this individual as cover for his own government’s gaffes.
The State Control Centre’s investigation into this mess must be exhaustive. It must leave no stone unturned.
Because no Tasmanian wants to see these same mistakes made twice.