Member for Albury Justin Clancy says border residents have every right to be angry with the COVID-19 carrying Sydney removalists who have exposed the region to one of its biggest challenges since the pandemic began.
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Mr Clancy, who recently completed 14 days in isolation when caught up in the early stages Sydney outbreak, said hunting down all close contacts of people who were at the Jindera Shell service station late morning last Saturday was a major priority.
His biggest fear is the removalists, who went to the Jindera service station, have been to other parts of the region and haven't informed authorities.
They attended the Hay Shell service station earlier the same day on their return from Adelaide.
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Credit card transactions at the Jindera service station confirmed the removalists stop in Jindera.
"Have these removalists been anywhere else?" Mr Clancy said.
"We need to make sure our contact tracers have really scrutinised that aspect of it.
"Secondly, looking at the close contacts for that half hour period at Shell (service) station at Jindera.
"My understanding is they have CCTV footage.
"Hopefully we can then identify people of concern and make sure they are in self isolation.
"But if you are not a close contact we want you to be vigilant, we want you to obviously be careful, be COVID safe, but the immediate priority is the identification of those close contacts."
Rapid testing for the virus is being made available for close contacts.
But Mr Clancy said there was genuine anger directed at the removalists.
"I share the frustrations of the Victorian COVID tracers and South Australian COVID tracers in terms of the difficulties posed by these removalists," he said.
"But what we can do is if NSW Health or Victorian Health contacts you, please make sure you are giving them as much information as you can."
The removalists are the subject of a criminal investigation.
Detective Chief Inspector Mick Stoltenberg confirmed the removalists' movements between three states were being investigated by Sydney counterparts.
"They are subject of a criminal investigation by their local police in relation to why they broke the red zone bubble and why they decided to go travelling all around the countryside," he said.
"We are going to chase every rabbit down every hole.
"If it turns out that they get an infringement notice because they failed to comply in our area, they failed to wear a mask in our area (so be it).
"If it turns out they were up to something else we will chase up on that too."
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also commented on the removalists in announcing a fifth lockdown for his state on Thursday.
"Someone coming forward and telling the truth is the most valuable thing," he said.
"That is precious.
"The frustration in many respects is not that they perhaps weren't wearing their masks when they were unloading the truck.
"It is that for quite a while they were very difficult and weren't necessarily being forthcoming."
CCTV footage obtained from the service station was also being reviewed by Albury police.
A small number of people were in the Jindera service station when the removalists stopped.
Jindera residents converged on the town's sportsground after a testing centre was established in addition to those in Albury and Lavington.
Murrumbidgee Local Health District public health director Tracey Oakman said the community had to assume there was COVID-19 in the area and urged residents to get tested.
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