Lennox Village Shopping Centre management didn’t deep clean after COVID-19 case

Small business owners have hit out at a popular western Sydney shopping centre for not closing its doors for deep cleaning after being notified a COVID-19 case visited the mall.

A popular suburban shopping centre visited by a person diagnosed with COVID-19 two times last week has been criticised for not closing for deep cleaning after being notified by NSW Health of the incident.

Lennox Village Shopping Centre at Emu Plains was notified on Monday of a person diagnosed with COVID-19 visiting the centre — including Woolworths — between 4pm and 4.30pm on July 6, and 3.45pm and 4.15pm on July 9, with anyone attending this venue during this time considered a casual contact. 

Lennox Village had a reported case of a person diagnosed with COVID-19 visiting on two occasions on July 6 and 9.

“If your date of exposure at this venue occurred in last 4 days, you must get another test on day 5 from the date of exposure,” the health alert said. 

“Wear a mask around others and limit your movements until you get another negative result. 

“You should continue to monitor for symptoms and if any symptoms occur, get tested again.”

However, a representative of the centre argued it did not need to be closed and deep cleaning conducted as a “casual contact visited the centre, not someone with COVID-19 themselves”.

Hundreds of shoppers took to social media to raise concerns over the lack of deep cleaning of the centre following the NSW Health reports, with dozens quizzing centre management on the shopping centre’s Facebook page.

A concerned business owner, who did not wish to be named, said Lennox Village management, alongside Woolworths, should have closed for deep cleaning as soon as notification came through from NSW Health. 

“We are terrified, centre management didn’t even bother to contact us yesterday or overnight,” the owner said. “All we got was a letter stuffed under out door this morning telling us the person walked through the mall to the supermarket.”

The popular shopping centre has been criticised for not closing for deep cleaning.

The business owner said she instructed staff to stay home and get tested. 

“We are trying to take necessary steps to ensure the safety of our staff and our customers, but the centre is not,” she said. “They should have immediately closed for deep cleaning and notified tenants.”

The letter to tenants issued on Tuesday morning said “the centre is maintaining a high level of cleaning, as is Woolworths”.

A Woolworths spokesman said the store had a detailed deep clean overnight on July 12 when the store closed.

“Customers and team members should be assured they can continue to safely shop and work at our Woolworths Emu Plains store,” he said.

“Any customers who shopped in the store on July 6 and feel unwell in the next two weeks should make contact with the health authorities.”

Woolworths Emu Plains saw a confirmed case where someone with COVID-19 visited the store while infectious.

Lennox Village Shopping Centre’s centre manager declined to answer questions following the incident, however, in a statement to shoppers representatives said the centre is “cleaned every day”.

“A person came to the centre with COVID-19, the store did not infect the person,” a representative said. “As soon as Health NSW contacted us we announced the news.

“Both the centre and Woolworths were cleaned last night, so there should be no need for concern.”

A NSW Health spokeswoman said a person with a “confirmed COVID case attended the Woolworths venue last week”.

“Venues are required to clean the premises however they do not necessarily have to be ‘closed’ from usual operations to undertake this clean, for example if the cleaning occurs during the hours the venue is closed to the public.”