Coronavirus Qld: Market Square Sunnybank restaurant closes
A restaurant owner at a Brisbane southside food mecca has shared his moment of agony when he found out a woman at the centre of the latest COVID-19 scare dined there.
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The owner of a Brisbane southside restaurant attended by a confirmed COVID case in the past eight days said he found out the news when two cops arrived at his restaurant yesterday afternoon.
Madtongsan IV Korean restaurant at Market Square Sunnybank is one of 11 venues confirmed by Queensland Health as having been visited by one or both of the 19-year-old women who tested positive to the virus yesterday morning.
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The pair travelled to Brisbane from Melbourne via Sydney on July 21 and allegedly provided false information on their border declarations.
Madtongsan IV’s owner, who asked not to be named, said two police officers and two government health officials arrived about 3pm and stayed for two hours.
According to Queensland Health, one or both of the teen girls visited Madtongsan IV between 7 – 9pm last Thursday.
Nearby business Heeretea Bubble Tea in Sunnybank Plaza was also visited shortly afterwards at 9.25pm.
Madtongsan IV’s owner said the two health officials asked him for customer and staff details before asking him if any staff were symptomatic.
They then asked him about his cleaning procedures.
The owner said he is yet to receive instructions from Queensland Health as to how long his business must close for, but he has made a unilateral decision to stay closed for today.
The restaurant’s ‘Closed’ sign was the only clue anything was amiss at Madtongsan IV – diners who didn’t see the sign were still trying to enter the restaurant.
Three or four staff, in addition to the owner, who was seated at a table, were inside cleaning.
The owner said the latest development is the third coronavirus body blow to his restaurant.
In addition to the full lockdown of March – May, he said rumours which swirled around in January that Market Square was already becoming a virus hot spot hurt customer numbers.
“Of course I’m disappointed,” he said.
Elsewhere in the centre, there were few signs anything had happened.
For a while, the assistant centre manager, who did not give his name, paced out the front of the restaurant on his mobile phone.
He told the Courier Mail the centre had received no contact from Queensland Health.
He said he found out the news from other tenants of the centre.
“We take this very seriously,” he said.
A cleaner at Market Square, Gerry Li, said he had been given instructions to focus on disinfecting handrails and would be joined in the evening by additional cleaners as a precaution.
Any individuals who were present at any of the 11 locations visited by the two women at the relevant times are asked to immediately self-quarantine and contact 13 HEALTH.