Australian Sentenced to Month in Jail for Violating Quarantine to See Girlfriend

Australian national Jonathan David, 35, was jailed for a month on Tuesday for reportedly sneaking out of a hotel and breaking quarantine measures to visit his girlfriend. He is the first person to be imprisoned in Australia for violating COVID-19-related lockdown measures.
Sputnik

According to a report by AFP, David was arrested earlier this month after opening a fire escape and sneaking out of a hotel in Perth, the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia.

On Tuesday, David told Perth’s Magistrates Court that he first broke the country’s lockdown laws to get food and then violated the rules once again, just a few hours later, to visit his girlfriend, whom he said he missed.

Although David managed to get by hotel staff members, he was caught escaping via the fire exit on video surveillance.

Under the country’s lockdown measures, David, who had arrived in Perth from the southeastern state of Victoria on March 28, was supposed to isolate for 14 days in his hotel room. However, David now faces a $1,280 fine and a whole month in jail for violating the rules.

According to AFP, more than 1,000 fines have been issued thus far for lockdown breaches in the country. Offenses include dozens of people congregating for a street car rally in Brisbane and a group of men in western Sydney eating pizza in a car.

Australians have been under lockdown for more than four weeks. The country has also implemented penalties for those who violate lockdown measures. There are more than 6,000 cases of the coronavirus in the country, and at least 63 deaths have resulted from the disease, according to the latest Worldometer data.

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