By Raquel Mustillo and Charlotte Varcoe
NEIGHBOURS of the Mount Gambier woman who tested positive for Covid-19 say they are “traumatised” by the potential for community transmission amid silence from official sources as to the infected person’s whereabouts while symptomatic.
While SA Health’s latest statement – shared to social media late Wednesday afternoon – said the authority did not expect any further public exposure locations to be listed in South Australia, neighbours of the infected woman remain anxious and fearful due to a lack of information from authorities.
Mount Gambier resident Theo, who lives directly across from the woman, said the neighbourhood was “horrified” to hear about the positive case and subsequent claims about the 40-year-old’s movements after experiencing symptoms on September 26.
Five days after the woman returned a positive test, both SA Health and SA Police are still yet to determine where the mother-of-four had been while infectious after initially claiming she was visiting family in Casterton.
Following widespread speculation about the veracity of the woman’s claims, due to Casterton not recording any positive cases during that time, a staff memo issued by the chief executive of the Casterton Memorial Hospital said the woman’s supposed Covid-19 contact in the border town was “found to be a non-truth”, claiming the infection was acquired while the woman was in Melbourne.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens told a press conference he had “not been specifically advised that this woman has lied”, but did concede that there had been “some challenges in obtaining relevant, up-to-date information”.
Theo claimed he had viewed footage from a closed-circuit camera (CCTV) set up at another neighbour’s house that allegedly shows the woman leaving her house while purportedly in 14-day quarantine.
He rejected claims that the woman arrived in Mount Gambier and went directly to get tested prior to entering self-quarantine, alleging that there had been a number of movements at the residence.
“When she said she came home and isolated – that’s an absolute crock,” Theo said.
“I watched CCTV footage which shows her leaving her house at least eight times.
“The authorities are powerless because they rely on people to tell the truth, and it takes individuals such as myself and others to help fill in the jigsaw puzzle.”
Theo claimed neighbours had advised authorities of the movements of the woman and provided the footage to help assist the inquiry.
However, authorities did not confirm whether they had viewed the CCTV footage or if any video had captured the woman leaving the house.
South Australian chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier told reporters earlier this week that “a number of people [had] come forward and [say] that they had contact with this person or believed they had”.
Mount Gambier resident Jessica – who is currently in quarantine after being determined as a secondary contact – claimed the infected woman left the residence where she was supposed to self-isolate.
According to Jessica, the woman left the home “for a number of hours” after returning from Victoria.
Jessica, who is also a business owner, said her son was friends with one of the infected woman’s children and claimed the woman left her residence for approximately five hours after she returned from Victoria.
“My kid has had two incidents face to face with [the woman and her children] since she has been symptomatic,” she said.
“As soon as we found out it was them, we called SA Health, asked what we should do and where to go from here. They told us that my son was a close contact and we were secondary close contacts.
“I run a cleaning business here in Mount Gambier and because we are all close contacts, we now have to isolate for two weeks which means I cannot work and lose income due to her doing the wrong thing.”
Despite Prof Spurrier to “be very cognisant” of the “number of reasons why people don’t tell us absolutely what those people have been up to”, Theo said it was irresponsible and unacceptable for people to risk the public’s safety.
“We feel this first hand, and me being an Aboriginal who has a life expectancy of 15 years lower than the other community, it is traumatising,” Theo said.
“I was born and bred here, so when people like this jump the border, be dishonest and abuse our community, it’s not on.
“One of our neighbours has a heart condition, another neighbour has an issue with her lungs, a couple of houses down there’s a family with beautiful baby twins.
“If those beautiful babies caught a cold – they’d die.
“There’s a lady who lives right next door to the family who works in a facility.
“The stakes are that high and there’s no room for error at all.”
