‘Debilitating’: Covid rule that could crush business despite vaccination rates
There are warnings of “frightening” impacts to business and the availability of food and products if this Aussie rule isn’t changed.
Tish Tilly’s bra fitting business would find it “debilitating” if her staff are forced to isolate for 14 days every time they came into contact with a positive Covid person, even after Victoria hits its vaccination targets and reopens.
Not only would it cause a loss of $50,000 in revenue if the store in Melbourne’s Hawthorne East had to close for two weeks, but it could also force her five staff members to stay at home despite being fully vaccinated.
“The nature of bra fitting is you can’t really do it from a distanced point of view. We have to get pretty up close and personal with our customers, so it is hard to stay out of that 4-metre zone or 2-metre zone in order to do our job properly,” she told news.com.au.
“We are a little bit different from most retail environments as we are by appointment only and have low foot traffic. So it’s a bit more like a medical clinic as we are only seeing one person at a time and a maximum 12 people each per day.”
She said if the self-isolation rules remain the same it would put a lot of extra pressure on her “already strained” small team that help run her business called She Science.
“But it may well prevent us from trading altogether,” she revealed. “We will essentially be experiencing mini essential shutdowns and it’s worse in some ways as it only affects our business, which means we lose customers to competitors, so it’s a bit of a frightening concept.”
It wasn’t just the lost revenue that was a concern for the 35-year-old, but also the impact of a shutdown on staff due to lost shifts, delays with sending out customer orders and efficiently ordering from stockists as well, she said.
Recently in NSW, it was announced that fully vaccinated people in NSW who are close contacts of a positive case will only have to self-isolate for seven days, down from 14. They would then be encouraged to stay home as much as possible for the next seven days.
But Ms Tilly believes even this is still too long. She said staff who come into contact with a positive case should isolate until they receive a negative result, but otherwise the rules should be scrapped.
“Personally I think that isolating for seven days is too long with the amount of cases we are going to have out in the community – its going to affect us all,” she said.
“That’s not really learning to live with Covid its just continuing to put out the spot fires. For me we are either open or shut and we are either chasing high vaccination rates or zero cases. We can’t be trying to do it all.”
700,000 exposures
The 14-day self-isolation rule was an issue that plagued business in the UK when the country opened.
Deemed the ‘pingdemic’ as its health service app sent out alerts, it resulted in hundreds of thousands of workers sent into isolation and forced scores of businesses and even childcare centres to close.
At its peak in July, the number of self-isolation alerts sent in England and Wales in a week was just under 700,000.
Major UK supermarket chain Iceland said it had managed to keep its stores open throughout lockdowns but 1000 staff had received notifications about potential exposures meaning some sites were shut in July.
But new rules introduced in the UK in August mean fully-vaccinated people do not have to isolate if they come into contact with a positive case.
‘Really difficult’
Edward Taylor, who runs a a tourism outfit in Melbourne, believes businesses need certainty when it comes to reopening.
He owns Rotor One – Melbourne Helicopter Rides, which employs eight pilots and offers helicopter experiences and adventure flights over Melbourne city and even up to the 12 Apostles and Yarra Valley.
By its very nature, his staff will come into close contact with customers.
“It’s a massive exposure for us in the event that we come in contact with someone who tests positive for covid,” he told news.com.au.
“That potentially means we become an exposure site and then myself and all my employees have to go into quarantine and shut down again, but this time without any federal or state level financial assistance.
“We are on our own for a two-week period, which will be really difficult.”
The 36-year-old said it would not only mean a complete loss of revenue for 14 days, but also a question on how many people would rebook an experience as the company offers a full refund for Covid related matters.
“An experience starts at $200 per person and goes up to $1500 to $2000, so that’s tens of thousands we would lose over two weeks,” he added.
Like Ms Tilly, he wants to see Australia actually live with Covid to ensure businesses can plan long term and have certainty around trading.
“I think the country needs to begin to understand how we live with Covid because we have seen with the last outbreak that hardcore worldclass restrictions and lockdowns can no longer prevent case numbers,” he said.
“At some point we need to understand how to effectively continue to live, work and operate where Covid exists.”
‘Massive knock-on impacts’
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said one of the goals of getting to 80 per cent double vaccinated is to allow businesses to reopen and life to resume as normal as possible in the new Covid safe world.
He said the Chamber had written to the federal and state governments seeking clarity on issues, including the question surrounding the exposure site status of a business if everyone in attendance has been vaccinated.
“In a Covid normal Victoria, it won’t be realistic or practical to shut down tens or hundreds of businesses for long periods of time if the inhabitants of those businesses have been fully vaccinated,” he said.
“Just look at what happened in Shepparton where one third of the town was in isolation due to the high number of exposure sites which had massive knock-on impacts that caused distress and anxiety for residents, businesses and workers.
“We continue to wait for clarity and guidance from our governments on all of these issues. We cannot continue to keep locking people in and shutting business down once we hit our vaccination targets.”
There have already been warnings that Aussies could face food shortages and see particular products missing from retail shelves when NSW and Victoria open up if thousands of workers are forced to isolate when they come into contact with a Covid-19 case.
The Australian Food & Grocery Council (AFGC) said the impact to grocery supplies could be similar to what was being experienced in Britain.
Its called on governments to change the rules so that if someone is double vaccinated, not symptomatic and has had a negative test, then they should be able to return to work rather than going into quarantine.
Victoria has yet to release any details on changes to the self isolation rule.
New NSW rules
However, NSW Health officials announced last week a rule change to self isolating, which will kick in after 70 per cent of the population are immunised.
From October 11 any fully vaccinated person who is a close contact must get tested and self-isolate for seven days, getting tested again on the sixth day.
If the second test comes back negative, the person can then end isolation. If the person tests positive for Covid-19, they will be required to self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of their vaccination status.
But movement restrictions will still apply for the following seven days though.
These include working from home where practicable and not attend hospitality venues or any high-risk settings.
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