UPDATE: 31 March 7.30pm
National Police spokesperson, Brigadier Vish Naidoo confirmed to Randburg Sun that police are treating an email which claimed that a woman had visited a Randburg pet store after testing positive for Covid-19, as serious.
Naidoo confirmed that an inquiry had been opened, and that police were searching for the sender of the email.
According to Naidoo, the spreading of false information was in contravention of the Disaster Management Act, and that charges could be brought if it turned out that the email was fake.
“Once the mail has been traced, should it be found to be true that the woman has coronavirus, she could be charged with attempted murder,” said Naidoo.
Naidoo appealed for help from the public. ” We appeal to members of the public who may have information on the sender of the email to come forward with the information. We also appeal to the sender to turn himself/herself in, and encourage members of the public not to spread fake news during this crisis.”
INITIAL REPORT: 31 March 11am
Cat Box Pet Hyper has closed both its Randburg stores for sanitisation after receiving an email from a woman who had puportedly visited the store after testing positive for Covid-19. The legitamacy of the email has been brought into question.
The email, which was sent from an email address that according to Randburg Sun’s investigations no longer exists, said that the woman suggested the store had its staff tested for Covid-19, after she had visited the store after testing positive for Covid-19.
Randburg Sun spoke to management at Cat Box Pet Hyper who confirmed that they had received the email and have passed it on to police for investigation.
“We have closed both of our stores as a precaution, and will be sanitising them as required. We have passed the email on to police, to establish if it is real or not, but in the meantime, we have taken the needed precautions, including having our staff self-quarantine,” said director of Cat Box Pet Hyper, Cor Meyer.
Randburg Sun has emailed questions to the email address from which the email was sent, but received an error notification stating that the email could not be delivered, and that the email address is possibly incorrect.
Linden Police* referred Randburg Sun to Provincial Police for comment.
*A previous version of this story stated that Randburg Sun had asked Randburg Police for comment, and that they were not aware of the incident. The incident was in fact reported to Linden Police Station. Randburg Sun apologises for this.
