NSW Covid: Restaurants call for isolation rules to be relaxed

Leaders in the hospitality industry say the state’s isolation rules have become “impossible” to manage, and are asking for them to be changed.

Industry figures across the hospitality and retail sectors have called for isolation requirements for staff deemed close contacts of Covid-19 cases to be loosened, amid warnings it was placing a burden on businesses that is “almost impossible to manage”.

It comes as Health Minister Brad Hazzard said cricketers travelling to Sydney for the fourth Ashes Test next week would only have to isolate until they received a negative test if they were ­exposed to a Covid case.

It also follows an ­announcement by the US Centre for Disease Control overnight that positive cases would have to isolate for just five days, post-test, down from 10.

The Bondi Covid drive-through test clinic on Tuesday. Picture: John Grainger

But NSW businesses – from tourism operators to pubs – face losing staff at a moment’s notice if they’re deemed a close contact, with a seven-day self-isolation period mandated by NSW Health if contacted, or if contacts assess themselves to be at high-risk of catching the virus.

Craig Laundy, of Laundy Hotels, said the group was forced to close The Locker Room hotel, bar and bistro at Sydney Olympic Park on Christmas Eve after a positive case among management ­resulted in staff having to isolate. Mr Laundy backed a move toward rapid antigen testing being ushered in to allow contacts to leave isolation earlier than the seven days currently stipulated.

Laundy Hotels boss Craig Laundy was forced to close the Locker Room in Olympic Park after a positive Covid case. Picture: NCA Newswire /Gaye Gerard

“We need to move towards rapid antigen testing – for close and casual contacts – and let those negative test results be enough for staff to get back to work,” he said.

Restaurant and Catering Industry Association of Australia chief executive Wes Lambert said hundreds of NSW businesses have had to close or severely limit their hours due to staff being forced to isolate.

“The isolation requirements are making the problem almost impossible to manage,” he said.

“We’re calling upon the NSW government and all governments to remove isolation for (close contacts) who test negative with a PCR or test negative over successive days with rapid antigen tests.

“If we’re going to live with Covid, we have to live it.”

Locker Room employee Taylor Ishak with manager Toby Wiche. Picture: Jonathan Ng

It comes as NSW recorded its fifth straight day of more than 6000 new Covid cases, with 6062 cases and one death reported on Tuesday.

The number of cases in intensive care increased by five to 60, while hospitalisations jumped to 557, up 36 from the day before.

Across the retail sector, businesses were facing a “juggling act … whenever a staff member is forced to isolate”, according to the Australian Retailers Association’s chief executive Paul Zahra.

Margy Osmond, the chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum, said businesses were being forced to shut their doors in response to current advice.

“The industry has been nothing but supportive of the health requirements, (but) we’re finding a lot of businesses are having to shut down as a response to isolation requirements,” she said.

Ravi Singh, chief executive of restaurant chain Kickin’Inn, which has eight restaurants in Sydney, said some of his staff have been waiting six days for PCR test results, with a clean bill of health enabling those deemed close contacts allowed to return.

“As I speak right now, we have 43 per cent of our total staff forced off the job because of being contacts – they’re all waiting for their test results to return,” he said.

Professor of epidemiology at the University of Sydney Alexandra Martiniuk said shortening isolation periods made sense if done safely.

“Shortening an isolation period where it’s still effective is a good thing because it lessens the burden on our population – hospitality needs its workers – but we need to make sure it’s done safely in a way supported by science,” she said.

A NSW Health spokesman said in recent weeks the authority had changed its approach to contact tracing for the growing number of people in the community exposed to cases of Covid-19.

“NSW Health will be contacting a much smaller number of people exposed to Covid-19 to direct them into self-isolation under the public health order,” the spokesman said.

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