Barbecue quest leads to another lockdown
• A barbecue enthusiast who went on a Sydney-wide search for grilling supplies while infected with the coronavirus has triggered new restrictions in Australia’s largest city, which is now battling new cases after a month without local transmission.
Authorities are mystified as to how the man, who is in his 50s, became infected. He was not a border or quarantine worker and had not recently returned from overseas. His wife also tested positive.
“We know for a fact there’s at least one person, if not more, walking around with the virus, not knowing they have it or potentially having attended many events and venues and that’s why it’s important for us to have a proportionate response,” Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of New South Wales, said Thursday as she announced three days of restrictions in the Sydney area.
The unnamed man crisscrossed the city while infectious in recent days, visiting four barbecue stores, kilometres apart, and a butcher shop. He dined at several restaurants and took in a movie at a local theatre. People who came into contact with him, including the state’s treasury chief, were asked to self-quarantine and get tested.
Sydney residents, who have been able to go to football games, dance, drink and sing mask-free since coronavirus restrictions were eased a few months ago, quickly remarked on the absurdity that Australia’s national pastime, barbecuing, should be the cause of fresh restrictions.
“Not to take the Sydney covid case lightly but this guy’s barbecue rampage is commendable,” one Twitter user wrote.
Starting Thursday evening, residents of Sydney and nearby areas won’t be able to have more than 20 people in their homes. Masks will be compulsory on public transportation and in indoor spaces, including shopping centres, theatres, retirement homes and hospitals. Singing indoors, including in churches, will be banned, along with dancing in clubs. Patrons also must be seated when drinking at pubs.
The new cases come as Australia faces legal challenges to contentious border restrictions.
On Wednesday, Gary Newman, a 73-year-old Australian stuck in Bangalore, challenged the federal government’s decision to pause flights from virus-stricken India. Anyone, including Australian citizens, who arrives in the country before May 15 after visiting India in the previous 14 days can face up to five years in prison, a $50,000 fine or both.
His lawyers will challenge the ban on multiple grounds, including that it is unconstitutional.
Lab results have shown the sequence from the Sydney man’s case matched that of a traveller from the United States who caught the virus in hotel quarantine in April. Tracers haven’t been able to establish a link between the two.