Border business community welcomes easing COVID-19 restrictions

Isolation rules will be eased from Friday, with restrictions easing from 11.59pm for Victoria and 6pm for NSW.

Close contacts - those who live in the same household as an infected person - will not have to isolate if they do not have symptoms.

Patrons visiting hospitality venues will no longer have to show their vaccination status or check in using the COVID-safe app. Venues are also not required to keep attendance records.

Business Wodonga chief executive Graham Jenkin said the updated rules would allow businesses to have a complete workforce.

"This is fantastic news for business all across Victoria and NSW," he said.

"For small business, let's say that you're a husband and wife operating a small business and you are in staff, if one of you has COVID, the other one can't go to work.

"You have to close your business, unless you can find an emergency fill in."

The eased restrictions were welcome news for Bernie Rogers, who owns the family-run business Painter's Cafe. The Corowa take-away shop with outdoor seating was forced to close for a week in January after she became infected with coronavirus.

"My husband, who never got it, still couldn't work," she said.

"We've got a staff member off ... who hasn't tested positive, but she's about 10 or 11 days into isolation, because one of her family members has got it. And then another family member got it, so her isolation has had to continue."

Ms Rogers said although the government's isolation rules would changed, the cafe would continue to have its own testing requirements.

"Our staff would have to test before they come in, or ... would have to test before they could actually commence their shift," she said.

The River Fish & Chip Co in Wahgunyah had its best day on Good Friday since opening before in December 2019, before the pandemic.

Like many smaller hospitality venues, they also experienced staff shortages from time to time in order to comply with isolation rules.

Co-owner Simon Bartel said the updated rules were a welcome change for their business.

"In the past, we've had staff who can't come to work because a brother or a sister has got it (coronavirus)," he said.

Mr Bartel said their business relied heavily on patrons who came from both sides of the Border.

"It's good for us. It's especially hard when you're on the Border, so you've got people coming from another state with different rules," he said.

Australian Industry Group director of business services Tim Farrah said the restrictions had "smashed" the ability to manage daily workloads for small business owners.

"It's just going to take so much pressure off employees and employers," he said.

"This just allows businesses to operate as per normal, and to make hay while the sun shines."

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Ms Rogers said constantly updating the COVID Safety Plan and trying to stay on top of the system meant she felt discouraged from using it in the first place.

"It would get so overloaded it would just shut down," she said.

"You couldn't just update the one you had. You had to do it all again, so it's actually quite time consuming."

Mr Farrah said people did the right thing by getting vaccinated, which eventually led to the eased restrictions.

"It was probably a shame that it has taken so long for the government to take those rules down," he said. "It's just not good for people's mental health, as well as their physical health, when you're doing that for a long, long time."

Mr Bartel said in his case, he had asked patrons who refused to follow the rules to leave the venue, because they didn't want to wear a mask or sign-in when they entered the cafe.

"We have had a few arguments with people," he said.

"We've had to ask a few people to leave, because they basically told us, 'We don't answer to you, the only person we have to answer to is a court of law'."

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