Despite claims one-in-four people with COVID-19 failed to isolate, only 42 have been fined

In late July, the state government said one-in-four people who tested positive to COVID-19 were not home when doorknocked.

Hundreds of people who failed to answer the door were referred on to police.

But police fines suggest many of the people with coronavirus who didn’t answer had a permissible reason for not doing so.

Just 42 people have been fined for breaching isolation.

Of those, 26 have been fined $1652 and 16 have been hit with a larger $4957 fine, which was introduced early this month to target non-compliance.

Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent says there are several legitimate reasons why people didn’t answer doorknocks from police and ADF officials.

“Someone is sleeping, or they’re unwell — these people who are covid positive can be quite unwell,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“Sometimes people have been taken to hospital and they’re not home.”

But some people have been giving the wrong address when going for COVID-19 testing.

“When people undertake a test some have provided old addresses, wrong addresses,” Mr Nugent said.

Police have conducted more than 300,000 compliance checks on people, businesses, and mass gatherings.

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