A small business owner forced to close his doors after a COVID positive person attended his store says he's had to fight with customers to get them to check in.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Owner of the Wilson Street Store Steve McLennan said the COVID positive person in question did do the right thing and checked in when they visited his store on September 21 between 5.30pm and 6.15pm.
However, he thinks his story should serve as a reminder to residents that checking in is essential and important.
"I am constantly arguing and fighting with people, it's amazing how no one has a mobile phone anymore and that we have to consistently tell people can you check in please?," he said.
"They walk into my store and think it's like walking out their front door but it's not mate, this is serious and as you can see right now it's going to jeopardise my work for the next fortnight which means I don't get an income.
"I know there's a lot of other people out there mate, doing it tougher than me but guess what it doesn't have to be this way if we get tested and we get vaccinated."
IN OTHER NEWS:
Mr McLennan received a call this morning from Albury Wodonga Health telling him to close the business which is classed as a tier-two exposure site and cannot reopen until it is fully cleaned.
Mr McLennan and two staff members had been deemed tier-one contacts and will have to quarantine for 14 days regardless of their test results.
Other staff members who were not working at the time in question have been deemed tier-two contacts and must isolate until they return a negative test.
Mr McLennan said working in the hospitality industry he knew the risk of COVID exposure was real which is why he was so adamant about COVID Safe procedures.
"I'm double vaccinated so I'm right in that way but my front door isn't because it's going to stay closed," he said.
Mr McLennan said with he, his wife and a full-time staff member out of the picture for the next 14 days, it will be tough to staff the business.
"You take myself and my wife out of the equation, the two business owners, and then you take one of those [tier one] staff members is a full-timer so she'll have to isolate for 14 days as well," he said.
"I'm down to half my staff. There's only eight of us here anyway... it's a very busy store and I've worked so hard to get it to where it is, and all of a sudden it's taken out from under you."
The whole ordeal has hit McLennan hard.
"I'm very upset about it," he said.
"It's terrible news obviously we go to work on one of the busiest days of Wilson St Store's weekly efforts and... I got a phone call about quarter past nine to say we were an exposure site.
"I thought they were mucking around, I've got a lot of mates out there who have a bit of a tongue-in-cheek with me but it wasn't, it was serious."
We have removed our paywall from our stories which contain need-to-know information about coronavirus. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.