After a 10-hour shift at the Wodonga emergency department, it was a huge relief for nurses knowing they could get groceries during a dedicated community shopping hour.
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Toilet paper was the most popular item for Border workers in the health and emergency services sector, who were given a dedicated shopping hour at Coles for the first time on Thursday.
Securing a pack has been like winning the lotto in recent weeks, although the public has been reasurred there is not and will not be a shortage in the product.
Charles Sturt University Dental and Oral Health Clinic nurses Zoe Faulkner and Casey Lean stopped in at Mann Central Coles on their way in to work.
"It's not busy, and people are germ-free," Ms Lean said.
"I find it really good, because it's hard to get in to get what you want - by the time you finish work, everything is gone."
The clinic has been taking emergency teeth problems, in a bid to ease the load on other public health services.
"We've got different operations at the moment," Ms Lean said.
"We have a dentist who comes down from Wagga and he was the only person in the whole of CSU who was still allowed to travel through campuses."
Ms Faulkner said it was a scary time, particularly as workers in the dental industry were at a high risk of contracting COVID-19 from patients.
"We're double-masking and double-gloving, it's not worth the risk," she said.
"We're stressed and anxious. It's pretty awful."
Emotions are also high on the wards of AWH's Wodonga campus.
"We've kind of been riding on this high level of anxiety since the fires; we haven't actually stopped," nurse Bec Hughson said.
"The health implications of fires alone are bad enough, and then you throw an unknown disease into the process, and it makes it a bit scary.
Sue Bullivant came off a 10-hour night shift with Ms Hughson to attend the community hour from 7am to 8am on Thursday.
"It's challenging at the moment, but work has been phenomenal, they've been really supportive," she said.
"We work together as a team, one gowns up and the other passes things through the door if we need it, things like that."
Ms Hughson said if the Albury-Wodonga community followed instructions about hygiene and did not leave their homes unless absolutely necessary, they could avoid overwhelming the health sector.
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"We're doing this not only for other people's families, but our own," she said.
"If people keep doing isolation and minimising their shopping to once a week, we might not get it [a big peak].
"If you can stay home, do stay home - that's our motto at the moment."
At Coles, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 7am to 8am is dedicated to disabled community members and seniors.
Woolworths also has the same time slot dedicated to vulnerable people daily.
The hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Coles will now be for emergency services and health care workers who are in uniform or who have workplace ID.