Jetsetting pair infected with coronavirus slam ‘hate campaign’
A Melbourne couple who contracted coronavirus during a trip to a luxury ski resort in Colorado have been accused of flouting restrictions but the pair says it is all part of a “hate campaign”.
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An incredible spat has erupted among Melbourne’s elite over allegations an infected couple of jetsetters flouted COVID-19 restrictions.
The pair — who contracted the virus during a trip to luxury ski resort town Aspen, in Colorado — have accused their critics of mounting a “hate campaign”.
It is understood the finance expert and his entrepreneur partner were in a group of about 20 high-flyers from Melbourne who contracted the coronavirus while on the trip.
They are believed to have been infected by a child of one of the members of the group who had taken a break from backpacking to visit them.
Portsea residents are now fuming about the couple, saying they have blatantly flouted self-isolation restrictions since returning, socialising at soirees, playing golf and putting locals at risk, all claims the couple denies.
“It’s astonishing and people down here are just appalled,” one Portsea local, who asked not to be named, said.
The woman on Wednesday confirmed to the Herald Sun she had contracted COVID-19, but said that every case was different.
Any suggestion she and her partner were disregarding self-isolation restrictions was untrue, she said.
“I’ve been cleared by the Health Department since last Friday,” she said.
“We are the responsible ones in this and people have nothing better to do than be nasty.
“I’ll tell you what, if we lived in Box Hill and I’d been to Bali no-one would care, would they?”
Most of the Aspen set returned to Australia earlier this month, with at least 16 of the party understood to have since been diagnosed as COVID-19-positive.
The couple flew into Melbourne early this month and attended a cocktail party for Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop families at the school’s Glamorgan campus in Toorak.
It is understood they were not aware they, or others from the Aspen party, had contracted the virus at that stage.
Last week, the school issued a statement confirming a student and six parents at the cocktail party had tested positive, adding it was ending its term early to try and prevent the spread of the virus.
But some close to the couple claimed they only had tests after peer pressure, before heading to their Portsea holiday home. Both tests returned positive.
The tight-knit Portsea community is up in arms over what they describe as a disregard for others.
Several residents claimed the couple had been spotted last weekend visiting a bathing box, dining out, shopping at Stringers delicatessen and even teeing off at the Sorrento Golf Club.
“They are just moving about within the population, telling people they feel fantastic and there is nothing to worry about, they even said they would pop in to a party down here saying ‘I feel fine, it’s no big deal’. The host told them not to come,” one said.
But the woman hit back, saying she had followed all the advice given to her the from the health department “to a tee” after being infected.
“We’ve done nothing. I’ve never been to Stringers, I’ve never been to the golf club, I’ve been in isolation. I went to the supermarket after I had been cleared,” she said.
“This is a hate campaign. My children are being asked ‘has your mother gone to jail?’ I haven’t gone anywhere.
“This is the other side, the ugly side to it, instead of people being concerned, they are doing this?”
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