Covid NSW: Coffs Harbour exposure sites listed

MP issues a warning for the Coffs area after someone with Covid visited a number of shops last week with one pub now ‘battening down the hatches’.

The Hoey Moey in Park Beach, Coffs Harbour has been listed as a covid exposure site.

Coffs Harbour is on tenterhooks after a Covid-positive person visited the city, with an MP listing a number of exposure sites.

Residents who visited the Hoey Moey last week began getting texts from NSW Health on Sunday evening, alerting them they may be a close contact of a Covid case.

Coffs Harbour MP Gurmesh Singh posted a list of exposure sites on his Facebook page this morning. They included Woolworths and Big W at Park Beach Plaza and the Hoey Moey.

Hoey Moey owner, Harry Barry, said the pub had now closed and staff had been sent for Covid tests.

Mr Barry said while the pub had not been contacted directly by NSW Health, a number of staff had received texts informing them they may be a close contact.

He was now waiting for guidance on the next steps.

“The town is waking up to this as a reality and it is important to get this out as quickly as we can,” he said.

“At the moment the Hoey is closed until further notice and is undergoing a deep clean.

“For us it is batten down the hatches and do no harm.

“We are hopeful that everything comes back clear.”

Despite Woolworths and Big W at Park Beach Plaza being listed as exposure sites, Bachrach Naumburger Group General Manager Steve Gooley said he was unaware of any staff within the complex receiving texts from NSW Health.

Park Beach Plaza, Woolworths and Big W all remained open.

“NSW has not given us any advice in regard to cases. I think there has been a little bit of an overreaction at this stage,” he said.

“At this stage (neither) Park Beach Plaza or Woolworths or Big W have been notified.”

A person who later tested positive to coronavirus visited Woolworths and Big W at Park Beach Plaza last week. Though it is understood they were not thought to be infectious.

While rumours are emerging that the person who visited the venues was from Sydney, Coffs Harbour MP Gurmesh Singh said it was too early to know whether the person, if they were indeed from Sydney, had breached the lockdown rules.

The spectre of coronavirus spreading to the regions has been at the fore in recent days after three covid-positive removalists left Sydney and travelled hundreds of kilometres to the central-west town of Molong.

“We don’t have any information about why this person was here, they could have been here doing genuinely essential work,” he said.

“But I would be very very disappointed if they were here flouting the rules and if that is the case I hope the full brunt of the law is show to this person.”