SA Health refuses Covid-19 travel exemption for son to be at dying mother’s Royal Adelaide Hospital bedside
An Adelaide expatriate has been refused a compassionate Covid-19 travel exemption to visit his dying mother despite personal support from the Premier.
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An Adelaide expatriate has been refused a compassionate Covid-19 travel exemption to visit his dying mother despite personal support from the Premier.
Daniel Cioffi, 40, is stuck in a Brisbane medi-hotel on a mercy dash to Adelaide from Spain after his mother, Emanuela, 66, was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer earlier this month.
But Mr Cioffi – who left his pregnant wife, Yolanda, 41, and toddler daughter India, almost three, at home in Majorca – remains in Queensland after SA Health denied his travel request.
Mr Cioffi, who has spent more than $10,000 on his trip, has appealed SA Health’s exemption’s panel decision, the reasons of which are secret.
Deputy chief public health officer, Dr Evan Everest, who last year signed off exemptions for visiting Port Adelaide player families, warned Mr Cioffi not to travel to SA before he had finished his quarantine, of which he has served six days.
Mr Cioffi, a property developer who is also a qualified physiotherapist and lawyer, has been left heartbroken about the refusal but stressed he didn’t want special favours.
He said there were “several precedences set nationally” for exemptions to visit dying relatives.
“I am not wanting to break any rules, I am not wanting to roam the streets of Adelaide, I just want to spend some time with my dying mother, I just want some compassion,” he said from his medi-hotel room.
“I am not a public health risk. It is not about whether my mother will die in 1 day, two days, a week or a month. She has a terminal illness and this is the quality time now.
“I spoke to her last night and she didn’t even know who I was. I know there are hundreds of others like me but where is the compassion?
“Nothing from all the information I have would suggests I am a danger.”
He had asked to serve the remainder of his mandatory 14 days in South Australia after having his first Pfizer dose, three negative tests and an Angel Flight charter plane to fly him home.
Mr Cioffi, a former professional basketballer including for the Adelaide 36ers, asked to visit his critical mother, a mother of four and grandmother of three, in the Royal Adelaide Hospital via a “sterile corridor”.
Premier Steven Marshall wrote a personal letter of support for his application to arrive in Australia.
Federal Labor MP Steve Georganas and state Upper House MP Frank Pangallo are also lobbying on his behalf.
His mother had complained of minor memory loss last month and a CT scan showed a large mass on her brain.
Doctors say she could have days or weeks to live. Mr Cioffi’s siblings have returned to Adelaide while her partner’s four children are also stuck in Sydney.
“It is completely unfair and I think it is an injustice,” he said.
Daniel’s father Edward Cioffi, 66, of Prospect, said the family felt their pleas were “falling on deaf ears”.
“Please have some compassion and put in place what you put in place for footballers and for other people in these kinds of situations,” he said.
Mr Georganas condemned the decision.
“This is another heartbreaking story of a family separated at the most crucial of times,” he said.
“It shows again the frustration faced by those who are willing to do whatever it takes to safely get to their loved ones during the pandemic.”
Mr Pangallo added: “He is young man who desperately wants to see his dying mother and it is rather cruel and unjust he is being denied that opportunity because of a hard-line attitude when flexibility is needed in matters like this.”
In an email to Mr Cioffi, SA Health had told him: “After careful consideration of all the available information provided the panel have declined your request for onward travel during your mandatory quarantine period.
“We understand that this was not the response you were hoping for.
“We have notified Queensland Health that we have not accepted your onward travel and that you will need to complete your supervised quarantine in Queensland prior to travelling to Adelaide.”
An SA Health spokeswoman said decisions were made in consultation with the treating clinician.
“The information provided by the clinician is factored into our decisions,” she said.
SA Health late on Friday rejected his appeal. But Mr Cioffi’s Sydney-based step-sister had her exemption approved.
Hundreds released from quarantine
More than 1300 people linked to the state’s latest outbreak have been released from quarantine after authorities dropped risk concerns but more infectious patients are recovering in hospital.
SA Health on Friday recorded no new daily patients linked to the Modbury cluster, which currently stands at 21 cases.
Another two patients, women aged in their 40s and 50s, were admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital overnight on Friday.
The pair are in stable conditions. The cluster’s source, a man, 81, and a woman in her 80s, are also stable in the RAH.
But as confusion reigned over contact tracers’ advice – and the different tiers of risk – SA Health allowed at least 1300 people, including those who visited a major Adelaide shopping centre, to leave isolation.
More than 20,000 people have been linked to the cluster after visiting almost 100 exposure sites.
SA Health said this didn’t include household contacts of tier 1 exposure sites.
At least 4,700 people remain in home quarantine or a medi-hotel, where authorities say they are being “closely monitored”.
More than 6000 people were in enforced quarantine after being linked to high risk, tier one and tier two sites including schools, shopping centres, other retail and “super spreader” locations – Tenafeate Creek Winery, at Yattalunga, on Sunday July 18 and The Greek on Halifax restaurant the night before.
“We anticipate a large number of people to complete their testing and/or quarantine requirements over the coming days, provided they return a negative day 13 test,” an SA Health spokeswoman said.
The Communicable Disease Control Branch downgraded the Burnside Village exposure site from the highest level.
Those who visited the eastern suburbs centre on Sunday July 18, between 1:05pm and 2:30pm are now classified as Tier 2 contacts, meaning that all household contacts can leave quarantine if they can move to a separate location or stay with other family.
Those linked to tier 1 sites must quarantine along with all household contacts.
Chief public health officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier, conceded rules were a “bit confusing”.
She said exposure sites changed after more details emerged in patient interviews, CTTV footage reviews and risk profiles.
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