A man who might have attended last week’s anti-lockdown protest has tested positive for COVID-19, NSW Police confirmed.
In a media statement, police said they spoke to the 35-year-old man at Central Station last Saturday, as part of an operation targeting the estimated 15,000 people who attended the protest in Sydney last weekend.
They determined he was in breach of the current stay at home orders and was issued with a $1000 fine. On Sunday, however, police say the man tested positive to COVID-19 and was ordered by NSW Health to self-isolate.
On Friday morning, police attended the man’s residence in Granville to conduct a compliance check, but were told he was at a work site in Parramatta. They say subsequent inquiries revealed he was at a home in Constitution Hill.
So to sum up: that’s possibly attending the anti-lockdown protest, testing positive to COVID-19, and then failing to comply with an order to self-isolate.
It is not yet known if the man was confirmed to have attended the protest (police told PEDESTRIAN.TV that inquiries are continuing) – but if he did, he would have been infectious.
“If that person would have attended the protest, they would have been infectious. We’re just working police to ascertain whether that person did attend,” NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said during the Friday morning presser.
It comes as the state recorded 170 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total in this outbreak to 2,980.
A second anti-lockdown protest is planning for this weekend, with Police Commissioner Mick Fuller confirming there will be up to 1000 officers on the ground.
“Coming into town to protest is not the answer,” he said.
“If you think you can splinter from that and protest somewhere else in Greater Sydney, that force will be mobile and will be waiting for you. You have been given plenty of warnings.”
