Ipswich businesses respond after Covid scare at Riverlink Shopping Centre and CSI

Managers of a popular shopping centre and services club have been forced to send staff to undergo testing while also staying open for business, here is how they’ve handled the latest Covid scare to hit Ipswich.

It's business as usual across two Ipswich venues following a Covid-19 scare.

A popular Ipswich shopping centre was unusually quiet following news of a Covid-19 scare.

Queensland Health revealed on Wednesday afternoon a person who tested positive to Covid-19 visited several shops Riverlink Shopping Centre on Friday before eating a meal at the neighbouring CSI North Ipswich.

The news prompted casual contact alerts for both locations, with warnings for staff and visitors to isolate and undergo testing.

The Covid-positive person visited the centre between 12.24-1.10pm before going to the CSI club between 1.15-2.15pm.

Riverlink Marketing Manager Karen Karageozis said the shopping centre underwent a deep clean only hours after the infected shopper visited, as per standard procedure.

The person visited Kmart between 12.24-12.40pm; Vodafone from 12.48-12.55pm; Telstra from 12.53-1pm; and JB Hi Fi from 1-1.10pm.

“The centre does undergo a thorough clean every night anyway, which has been in place since the pandemic started,” Ms Karageozis said.

“A thorough clean was done last night as well.”

Ms Karageozis said the centre had taken to social media to alert shoppers.

“We obviously did our best to get the message out there to inform our customers and retailers as soon as we were contacted by West Moreton Health,” she said.

She said fewer shoppers visited the store on Wednesday afternoon, following the news.

“Obviously traffic was affected in the afternoon, which means people were doing the right thing, going to get a test if they’ve been impacted and following the Queensland Health guidelines,” she said.

“But we are still open as per normal and have a pandemic plan in place.”

Despite the scare, it is business as usual across both Ipswich venues.

CSI Club general manager Natalia Onoprichuk said it was safe for patrons to return to the club.

“It’s definitely safe to return – we did a deep clean last night and had the club sanitised,” Ms Onoprichuk said.

“The patron was only here for an hour so it’s considered very, very low risk.”

She said the person had spent the hour sitting down to eat a meal.

“It was (not busy at the time); it was a quiet Friday lunch,” she said.

Ms Onoprichuk and Ms Karageozis said staff across both venues were being tested as a precaution.

The health department is urging anyone who visited either Riverlink Shopping Centre or the CSI club on Friday afternoon to get tested and isolate.

Read more news by Ebony Graveur here.