Curry Vault owner devastated after positive Melbourne COVID case shuts restaurant

The owner of an Indian restaurant forced to shut over the latest COVID outbreak has called for government support to help his ‘hurting’ business.

The owner of the Indian restaurant caught up in the latest local virus case has called for government support after being forced to close his business for two weeks.

Curry Vault owner Kailash Sharma told NCA NewsWire his restaurant would be closed for the next fortnight as all his staff had to isolate after being deemed close contacts and were unable to work.

Mr Sharma said if the department was listening, it would be “great” if they could provide financial support to help get the business through the shutdown.

He said he had asked already but was told there were no support packages available at the moment.

Mr Sharma said his business had already suffered more than $100,000 in losses due to last year’s crippling second wave lockdown.

“It hurts,” he said on Wednesday morning.

“We just got out from this big lockdown and we just started to get back on our feet slowly and this happened, it’s just devastating.”

Curry Vault owner Kailash Sharma said he was “devastated” his restaurant was listed as an exposure site.

The Curry Vault restaurant was listed as a tier 1 public exposure site after a man who later tested positive to coronavirus dined at the Bank Place venue between 6.30pm and 9.30pm on May 7.

The Melbourne man who tested positive, prompting the new alerts, had arrived in Australia from COVID-ravaged India and most likely caught the virus in hotel quarantine, Victorian health authorities have said.

The man, aged in his 30s, had completed hotel quarantine in South Australia after returning to Australia from India on April 19.

Curry Vault is located in Bank Place in Melbourne’s CBD. Picture: David Caird

He returned to his Wollert home in Melbourne’s north on May 4 and developed symptoms four days later.

Mr Sharma said he was shocked to receive a call from the health department on Tuesday.

He said more than 100 bookings for the next two weeks had needed to be cancelled.

“This is the season for us generally after March and April, when it’s getting a little cold, people come to (the) curry restaurant, it’s a busy time, and it will be a lot of money lost,” Mr Sharma said.

The five staff that are isolating have so far returned negative results.

Curry Vault owner Kailash Sharma was not in the restaurant at the time so does not have to isolate. Picture: Facebook

About 30 to 40 customers were in the restaurant at the time but not all had signed in using the QR code.

Mr Sharma said they had QR codes on every table and at the entrance and encouraged everyone to sign in when they arrived.

“We ask everyone have you signed in but sometimes staff are busy taking orders,” he said.

“We can’t force people to do things, we can remind them.”

He said they had passed on banking details to the health department to help with contact tracing and also wrote down names and numbers when customers didn’t have a phone.

Health Minister Martin Foley said on Wednesday morning 18 people who were exposed at the restaurant had been tested so far.

He said a further 14 patrons had been contacted and were getting tested.

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