Wodonga's Wilson Street Store exposure site status confused

Wodonga's Steve McLennan was notified on October 24 a positive COVID case visited his Wilson Street store.

Mr McLennan said he was initially told he was classified as being in a tier two exposure site, while the staff member who had been serving customers was classified as being in a tier one exposure site.

But three days later, after he had already returned a negative test result and was no longer required to isolate, Mr McLennan said he received a call from the DHS telling him he'd been misclassified and to isolate at home immediately.

"I think it was day three we got another phone call stating that they've made a mistake," he said.

"They want to apologise to us and that they've given us the wrong information."

Mr McLennan was told he should have been classified a tier one exposure site, meaning he should have been in isolation for 14 days since exposure.

"I had to get my son to ring his workplace and notify these people that now we're back into a tier one position, which was very embarrassing and very emotional," he said.

Mr McLennan said then a different person from the DHS rang to request the store's CCTV footage be sent through.

"And I said 'how am I going to do this when I'm a tier one? My shop's been cleaned'," he said.

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Mr McLennan said the DHS was organising PPE for him, but, sick of waiting, he sourced some himself and retrieved the footage.

"But it wont upload because the file is just too big," he said. Mr McLennan said he sent an email to the DHS explaining the situation, but after about three days later he is still waiting to hear back.

Meanwhile, he said customers who had been in his shop at the same time as the positive case were out in the community, which was a double standard.

"What's the difference between them and us?" he said.

Mr McLennan said the poor communication showed the DHS was overwhelmed.

"There's just no consistency," he said.

"We're mucking around with peoples lives here.

"There's not enough people out there helping.

"The phone numbers that we were given ... they're pointless because they're inundated with bloody people calling left, right and centre."

Mr McLennan said it was especially hard as a small business.

"You want to see how much stock (my staff) have thrown out," he said.

"I've lost that much in food and product, it's not funny."

The Victorian Department of Health was contacted for comment.

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