Melbourne venues discover they are exposure sites through the media

Venue owners have exposed a flaw in Victoria’s contact tracing system, with some discovering their venues were exposure sites through the media.

A Melbourne cafe owner discovered a person infected with COVID-19 attended his venue through the media.

It wasn’t until more than six hours later that the Department of Health and Human Services made contact with him, he says.

Paul Waterson, the CEO of Australian Venue Co which owns European Bier Café in Exhibition Street, tried to contact DHHS by phone after reading in an online news article that his cafe was an exposure site.

“Haven’t been contacted for our register for that night,” Mr Waterson wrote on Twitter.

“Can’t get through to DHHS on the phone. We have comprehensive records. They just need to contact us,” he tweeted.

Mr Waterson told the Sunday Herald Sun read the online news article at 2pm Saturday and he received a call from DHHS at 8.30pm.

He said his venue had been closed and was undergoing an immediate deep clean.

European Bier Cafe was closed after its owners discovered a positive case had dined at the venue. Picture: David Geraghty

“We take our venue COVID safety obligations and specifically our QR contact tracing extremely seriously,” Mr Waterson told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“We were surprised not to get a call until more than six hours after the DHHS had noted the exposure on their website. Our efforts were further hampered with the wrong date of the patron visit being published initially.”

Anyone who attended the cafe between 8pm and 9.30pm on December 28 must get tested immediately and quarantine until returning a negative result.

It came as a woman called the Sunday Herald Sun on Saturday to say Left Bank Melbourne Restaurant and Cocktail Bar where she worked had been incorrectly listed as an exposure site in an online article.

The Sunday Herald Sun obtained the information from DHHS’s website.

But the woman said she had not been contacted by DHHS.

Left Bank Restaurant was connected to the latest cluster in Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty

Anyone who attended the restaurant from 12pm to 2.30pm on December 25 must immediately get tested and quarantine until returning a negative result.

In a statement, DHHS said: “Contact tracers are currently working through exposure site details supplied by those that have tested positive, their close contacts and secondary contacts.

 “Once details are confirmed, sites and business owners are contacted for cleaning and to access the attendee register, and details are published on the DHHS website.”