MasterChef star’s restaurant forced to close over Christmas after 24 staff forced into isolation
A MasterChef star has shared his heartbreak at being forced to close his popular restaurant over Christmas, after 24 staff were ordered to isolate.
A former MasterChef star has shared his heartbreak at being forced to close his popular Noosaville restaurant over Christmas, after 24 staff were ordered to isolate for seven days.
Sum Yung Guys part-owner Matt Sinclair, who was 2016 MasterChef runner-up, posted an emotional video on social media after fellow owner Moe Rickard confirmed a staff member who worked on Sunday afternoon and night tested positive for Covid-19.
Under Queensland’s current rules, close contacts must isolate for the full seven days even if they return a negative test.
Mr Sinclair said the 24 other staff could not celebrate Christmas with their families, and that the business would miss its busiest week of trading, the Sunshine Coast Daily reported.
“It’s not really the road map that we saw coming out of the borders opening and the rebirth of the Queensland economy,” he said.
“Losing staff because we had to enforce the mandate of them being double vaccinated, then turning people away because they weren’t vaccinated, for what? I don’t know right now because we’ve kind of ended up in the same place.”
Mr Sinclair said staff shortages meant the business had to close.
“We just really don’t understand how this is moving forward and a step in the right direction,” he said.
“If we’re one week into borders being open and we have to close our business for a week, in the biggest week for hospitality in the year, the knock-on effects that has for our staff is enormous. I don’t know what this holds for the future … hopefully something has to change.”
It comes as the retail and hospitality industry warns of similar disruptions across the economy, with coronavirus cases surging again as states wind back restrictions.
Last week, South African doctors advising the government’s Covid-19 response called for quarantine and contact tracing to be stopped immediately, saying the measures are of “negligible public health benefit” and carried “substantial economic and social burden”.
In the UK, the 14-day self-isolation rule was an issue that plagued business when the country opened.
Dubbed the ‘pingdemic’ as its health service app sent out alerts, it resulted in hundreds of thousands of workers being sent into isolation and forced scores of businesses and even childcare centres to close.
“It’s an ongoing juggling act for retailers and their rostering whenever a staff member is forced to isolate,” Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra told news.com.au.
“The issue was heightened during the Delta outbreaks when close contacts were unavailable to work for two weeks.”
In September, Woolworths boss Brad Banducci informed customers hundreds of staff in distribution centres had been forced to isolate, leading to empty shelves and delays in online orders.
NSW changed the protocols in October, shortening the Covid-19 close contact isolation requirement to seven days, which Mr Zahra said had “made things slightly easier to manage”.
“However, with case numbers on the rise again, some businesses may be feeling uneasy as to what might lie ahead,” he said.
Last week, the NSW government announced changes to close contact definitions in a bid to stop thousands spending Christmas in isolation.
Premier Dominic Perrottet and chief health officer Kerry Chant said the definition of “close contact” was being overhauled, and would now only apply to household contacts and “household-like” contacts such as partners.
Fully vaccinated close contacts will only have to isolate until they return a negative test, rather than the full week, but unvaccinated close contacts must self-isolate for 14 days.
Even those deemed casual contacts must still self-isolate until they return a negative test.
And while it is highly unlikely social contacts of Covid-19 will be deemed close contacts and required to isolate for seven days, it is still possible.
Some cases of “superspreader” events such as the Newcastle nightclub could result in all attendees being deemed close contacts.
“As always, retailers will comply with health guidelines to keep staff and customers safe and minimise risk of further infections,” Mr Zahra said.
He added retailers, like governments, accepted there would be “ongoing challenges as we shift into living with Covid”, but were committed to moving beyond lockdowns “towards a more open economy”.
“Skills shortages are an intense challenge at this time of year in particular, along with supply chain issues, and we are working closely with the federal and state governments to help address this,” he said.
Other states are grappling with similar issues.
In Victoria, around 700 people were told to self-isolate for seven days last week after a person with the Omicron variant visited two Melbourne bars over the weekend.
Those who are fully vaccinated must still isolate for seven days under the state’s rules.
NSW reported 3763 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, as the state continues to smash its daily record for new infections.
Last week, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned the state could see up to 25,000 cases a day by the end of January.
“The vaccines are not stopping transmission,” Mr Hazzard said.
“[But] it would appear that the severity of illness is not as bad as it was with previous variants of the coronavirus.”
The surge has been driven by outbreaks in pubs and clubs, particularly in the Newcastle area.
The sharp rise in cases, and associated close contacts, has already caused disruptions to businesses and families.
One Bondi preschool informed parents last Thursday that it would have to close from midday on Friday due to staffing issues.
“Another one of our staff member’s roommate is now a close contact, because of how close of a contact he was, the whole house has been advised to isolate,” Ocean Street Long Day Preschool said in an email to parents.
“This on top of our other staff member who is also in isolation has really negatively impacted our staffing tomorrow and we have no choice but to close early.”
– With Sarah Sharples
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