{"id":115580,"date":"2020-04-04T19:40:46","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T17:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/?p=115580"},"modified":"2020-04-04T19:40:46","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T17:40:46","slug":"man-traced-claimed-covid-19-positive-middelburg-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2020\/04\/04\/man-traced-claimed-covid-19-positive-middelburg-mall\/","title":{"rendered":"Man traced who claimed to be Covid-19 positive in the Middelburg Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the police&#8217;s Crime Intelligence unit acted swiftly after <a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/115575\/man-claiming-covid-19-positive-refuses-leave-store-middelburg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reading about the incident<\/a> on <strong>www.mobserver.co.za<\/strong> online.\u00a0 Their investigations led them to a mine village outside of Middelburg.<\/p>\n<p>According to information, police are currently underway to go and fetch the man. Information from a trusted source\u00a0 said that the Department of Health has been contacted and that the man will be taken to the Middelburg Hospital for testing.<\/p>\n<p>Questions about the man&#8217;s mental state have been raised during the investigation. The Department of Health will assist to assess his mental health upon his arrival. The man will also be tested for Covid-19 to determine whether his allegations were unfounded.<\/p>\n<p>As a precautionary measure, Pick &#8216;n Pay has been closed earlier to be sanitized and the police officers who responded to the initial call from Middelburg Mall security have been taken off duty, the source said.<\/p>\n<p>This after a <a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/115575\/man-claiming-covid-19-positive-refuses-leave-store-middelburg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Middelburg Mall security officer responded to a call<\/a> from shop employees about a man who walked around claiming that he tested positive for Covid-19. The officer said that the man denied claims by members of the public that he told them he has Covid-19 when he was confronted. A member of the public took a video of his declaration at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The security officer contacted the police for assistance. They earlier were forced to let the man go after no one was willing to give a statement to charge him.<\/p>\n<p>The outcome of the man&#8217;s mental state, his tests as well as further developments will be reported on as soon as they are made available.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The police did not waste any time after www.mobserver.co.za reported about man, who claimed that he has been tested positive for Covid-19, refused to leave the Middelburg Mall premises.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5031,"featured_media":114423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Jana Boshoff","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[24236,24231,24230,21966,21989,24235],"class_list":["post-115580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-are-there-any-positive-corona-cases-in-middelburg","tag-corona-cases-in-middelburg","tag-covid-cases-in-middelburg","tag-middelburg","tag-middelburg-mall","tag-what-happened-at-the-middelburg-mall"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["Are there any positive corona cases in middelburg","corona cases in middelburg","covid cases in middelburg","middelburg","Middelburg Mall","What happened at the Middelburg Mall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}