A man has been charged after allegedly sending a fake positive COVID-19 test to a group chat, so besties, don’t even joke about it.
According to NSW Police, a man from Dubbo had a COVID test on Thursday, 12th August, and received a text message notifying him of a negative result about 6am Friday, 13th August.
But, instead of telling his mates it was all fine, the man allegedly altered the message to display a positive result and then sent it to a group chat. Like any normal law-abiding person, one of the people in said group chat then notified their workplace after believing they were a close contact.
“The worksite suspended work for the day and instructed its workers to get tested for the virus as a result,” read the NSW Police report.
Shortly afterward, police officers from Orana Mid-Western Police District were notified of the incident and investigated.
Police charged the man through a Court Attendance Notice with false representation resulting in a police investigation. He will appear in Dubbo Local Court on Monday, 27th September.
See, when you do COVID clownery, the clown comes back to bite.
Speaking with PEDESTRIAN.TV, a contact tracer from the Greater Sydney area explained that when people are purposefully avoiding being contacted by NSW Health or following stay-at-home orders, the team will get the police involved. It’s unclear in this scenario whether the contact tracing unit was involved here but there are rules in place for people who go against the public health order.
Yesterday, NSW Health recorded 19 new local cases of COVID-19 in the Dubbo and Walgett region. The community transmission in Walgett is particularly concerning due to the fact that 43% of its population are at-risk Indigenous Australians. Earlier this week, it was also revealed that a woman had allegedly faked being a doctor at Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital for *checks notes* eight whole months.
All adult Aussies (yep, even if those of us under 40) are currently able to get the safe and effective AstraZeneca vaccine through a GP. Click here to see which clinics are offering it, and talk to a doctor to see if it’s right for you.
Alternatively, you can triple-check to see if you’re eligible for the Pfizer vaccine here.
The best vaccine is the first one you can get, and that’ll be our ticket out of this mess.
