Police said on Tuesday that an Australian man was arrested after escaping the COVID-19 mandatory quarantine after climbing down four floors using ropes made from tied sheets in a hotel.
Travis Jay Myles, 39, was charged with failing to follow instructions and providing false/misleading information after fleeing a temporary quarantine area in the local news media Western Australia (WA) ABC report.
Miles travelled from Brisbane to Western Australia but failed to meet the mandatory COVID-19 criteria for entry into the state and was quarantined at a hotel in Perth on Monday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all travelers seeking to enter Western Australia must complete a G2G pass or apply online, which contains information about health conditions and travel details.
However, according to the police in Western Australia, Miles failed to show his G2G pass when he arrived in the state and was instructed to stay overnight in a hotel temporarily under quarantine. After the quarantine, Miles was ordered to return to his hometown of Queensland, Australia.
“The G2G application was rejected because it did not meet any exemption categories under Queensland’s existing restrictions and he was told to leave Western Australia within 48 hours,” the police statement read.
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However, at around 12:45 on Tuesday morning, police claimed that Miles managed to climb out of the hotel window using a temporary rope made of bed sheets.Photos shared by the police Facebook Display multiple bundled sheets hanging from the windows on the fourth floor.
About eight hours after he escaped, the man was found and arrested in the town across the street from Beaufort. The police stated that Myers has been detained and has completed a negative test for COVID-19.
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according to ABC, Miles appeared at Perth Magistrates Court via audio link late Tuesday afternoon.
The 39-year-old man did not apply for bail and he will be detained until his 14-day isolation period ends in early August. According to news media reports, in this way, Miles will be able to appear in court in person.
Australia has maintained a relatively strict attitude in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Tuesday, more than half of the country’s 25 million people have been locked down due to the increase in new cases of the Delta variant.
According to Reuters, South Australia has become the latest country to implement a seven-day lockdown after five cases related to returning passengers have been detected, while neighboring Victoria will extend the five-day lockdown period to July 27. In Sydney, where the recent Delta outbreak first broke out, residents are currently in the fourth week of a five-week lockdown.
According to trackers at Johns Hopkins University, a total of 32,129 cases and 915 deaths have occurred in the country since the pandemic first began.
