Business owner ‘can’t afford’ to shut after COVID case

One business owner says it was a ‘shock’ after finding out a COVID-19 positive case came into his shop. He is anxious for what is to come next.

A resident turns up for a COVID-19 test in Bundamba.

THE owner of an Ipswich takeaway business says he can’t afford to close the doors after a positive COVID-19 case visited his shop last week.

Lonnie Brown, who took over Uncle Bill’s Takeaway in Brassall in April, said he found out about the positive case on Sunday night.

He runs it alongside his son.

Mr Brown said the shop is regularly cleaned four or five times a day as a precaution.

He said only he and his son were working on the evening of Tuesday, August 18 which he described as a “reasonably quiet” weekday night.

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Mr Brown said business had been good during COVID-19.

“With everything closed up, everyone was coming to get takeaways,” he said.

“You never know who has been affected and is coming into the shop.

“Now this proves that.

“I can’t afford to close the doors. I haven’t got the staff to run it.”

Mr Brown said he was worried about the future of his business if he or his son test positive for the virus.

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“If one of us has got it, it makes it hard on the other to continue,” he said.

“At the moment, it’s a bit of a shock. A bit of a headache.

“You really need two people to run the shop.

“It's been a quiet day. It’s normally quiet on a Monday but not this quiet.

“(Customers) have no fear coming in. It if happened on Tuesday, it’s been cleaned that many bloody times since then.”

Read more stories by Lachlan McIvor here.

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