A South Carolina man was charged after lying about having the CCP virus, also know as the novel coronavirus, and caused a local business to shut down, the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office said.
Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said 31-year-old Jeffrey Travis Long was arrested on Thursday and charged with breach of peace and forgery, the Associated Press reported.
Long worked at a call center of Sitel Corporation in Inman. He told the company that he was tested positive for the COVID-19 virus with a physician note, WHNS-TV reported.
Sitel immediately contacted the South Carolina Department of Health and asked employees who had interacted with Long to self-quarantine for 14 days.
However hospital officials told investigators that they had not seen Long within the previous two weeks, and his note did not have an official stamp from the facility, Wright said.
According to Inman Police Chief Keith Tucker, the hospital Long claimed to have seen him was not even conducting COVID-19 tests at the time.
The incident caused the business to shut down for 5 days and brought massive panic, Wright said during a press conference on Thursday.
“It seems to me like the fella just wanted a two-week, paid vacation,” he said. “You can’t do this to people.”
Sitel said in a statement that Long no longer works there anymore.
“Today, the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office alerted Sitel that this employee made fraudulent claims about testing positive for COVID-19,” the company said. “The individual is no longer employed at Sitel.”
The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan, China and causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, there are over 300,000 confirmed cases around the world as of Saturday afternoon, with 24,148 of them in the United States.
The number is considered to be highly underestimated because of the underreporting of cases from Mainland China.
According to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), there are 173 COVID-19 cases across the state as of Sunday morning, with 3 deaths.
South Carolina had reported two new deaths, bringing the statewide total to three. According to the Department of Health and Environmental Control, both of the patients were elderly and had underlying health conditions.
The state received the first shipment of 55 pallets this week from the Strategic National Stockpile which contained N-95 masks, face shields, surgical masks, gowns, and gloves, the DHEC said on Saturday.
