Adelaide northern suburbs businesses impacted by Parafield coronavirus cluster fear for future

Northern suburbs businesses impacted by the Parafield cluster are worried for the future as they reveal how COVID came into their restaurants and stores.

Parafield Plaza Supermarket has been listed as a location visited by an infected person. Picture: Tait Schmaal.

Northern suburbs business owners have been left reeling after their businesses were announced as COVID-19 contact locations on Monday.

More than 50 locations have been listed as visited by people in the Parafield cluster which reached 20 confirmed cases.

Mawson Lakes restaurant Mint Leaf Lounge owner Raj Ukhal was notified by SA Health on Monday that an infected person had visited his restaurant.

“He spent half an hour to forty minutes at our restaurant on Thursday evening,” Mr Ukhal said.

Mint Leaf Lounge, Mawson Lakes is closed after an infected person visited the restaurant last week. Picture: Ben Cameron

“(SA Health) told us we would be on the list and I asked them if there were any further precautions we needed to take but they said just the deep cleaning.

“We decided to close for a few days for our customer satisfaction and we are getting deep cleaning and sanitising done by a cleaning company.

“Our staff have already been for COVID testing because we want to make sure everything is clear here.”

Mr Ukhal said he was concerned that customers would be too scared to return to the restaurant.

“You can’t say anything for definite but I think 30 to 40 per cent of people will be scared to come here and we have to convince them and put in a lot of effort now,” he said.

“It’s all unfortunate but it’s out of people’s control and we can only do our best to get the deep cleaning done and send the staff for tests.

“It’s the best we can do, it’s definitely affecting us and we don’t want someone to get infected from our site.”

Namaste Supermarket at Parabanks Shopping Centre, Salisbury was open on Tuesday after being notified of a contact on Saturday afternoon.

“We sanitised the entire store and deep cleaned and all of our staff have been for a COVID test,” owner Subash Niroula said.

“It’s really scary, we are very worried about how this will impact our business.”

Parafield Plaza Supermarket was closed on Monday and Tuesday after an infected person had visited the centre on Thursday morning.

A spokesman said it was unclear when the supermarket would reopen.

“As the reason for our closure is voluntary staff testing it will depend on test results come in,” he said.

“SA Health has confirmed no close contacts and no confirmed cases in relation to our premises thus far.”

The Messenger understands Parafield Plaza Supermarket staff have since returned negative COVID-19 test results.