Omicron creating huge fears as CBD traders on their knees
More than half of Melbourne’s city traders fear their businesses won’t survive the next three months, while industry leaders are calling for urgent support.
Victoria
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More than half of city traders aren’t confident they will survive the next three months, while just under three quarters are experiencing “intense distress”.
A recent survey of business sentiment by the City of Melbourne this month uncovered the true cost the Omicron outbreak has had on struggling CBD businesses.
It comes as leading industry groups call on the government to implement another round of financial assistance to help supplement business cash flow.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said that support could be in the form of cash injections, payroll tax relief and another voucher system to entice people back into the city.
“The general sentiment of members is one of desperation and fatigue,” Mr Guerra said.
“The summer holiday period – usually where many make the bulk of their yearly income – has been hit by low consumer spending as a result of the shadow lockdown we are seeing, with patrons choosing to stay home.”
A new report from the City of Melbourne, conducted for the Future Melbourne Committee, outlined that Omicron had forced customers away, while businesses also struggled to deal with workforce shortages and supply chain disruptions.
Retail and recreation activity within the CBD dropped to 62 per cent below the pre-Covid baseline on January 14 this year, as many opted out of working onsite, shopping or dining out.
More than 40 per cent of traders say they recently experienced severe staff shortages because of isolation requirements, while a further 36 per cent had been impacted prior to Omicron.
The survey of 129 CBD businesses – across a range of sectors including hospitality, accommodation, tourism and retail – found 53 per cent didn’t feel confident they could stay open for more than three months, while 74 per cent said they were “just surviving”.
Prominent Melbourne restaurateur Chris Lucas has called for all Covid restrictions to be immediately wiped in a bid to promote an approach that represented “living with the virus”.
Mr Lucas, who operates Chin Chin, Kisume and Society, said the challenges teamed with current Covid restrictions like density caps and mask mandates were slowly killing the sector.
“You try making money when you’ve got one arm and one leg tied behind your back, it’s impossible,” he said.
“We literally close the doors at the end of the night and not know whether we’ll be able to open them again in the morning. As an industry we are losing millions and millions a day.”
Mr Lucas said his sales for this January slumped by 60 per cent when compared to last January, which in itself was also a slow month.
“We were gearing up to have a huge summer and bounce back because this is traditionally our bumper season,” he said.
“Instead we’ve got a perfect storm including an erosion of consumer confidence, zero support and a government hellbent on negative messaging and reimposing restrictions.”
City of Melbourne councillors will call for support and a range of new incentives to boost city visitation, including hotel vouchers to support CBD stays, as well as a third serving of the Melbourne Money scheme, which injected $60m into the local sector.
Free public transport to major events like Moomba will also be requested, after new figures revealed the latest outbreak caused public transport usage to plummet.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp said it was clear the economic impacts of Omicron were similar to those felt during lockdowns, but business owners were without financial support.
“We need the state and federal governments to urgently introduce initiatives and commit to ensure Melbourne businesses can weather the impacts of Covid-19, as we live with the virus in our community,” Cr Capp said.
A Victorian government spokesman said regular conversations occurred with businesses and industry groups to “better understand the challenges they face”.
“We are already working closely with City of Melbourne to deliver $300m in joint funding through the Melbourne City Recovery Fund and Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund.”
TWO MILLION RATS DELIVERED TO SCHOOLS
More than two million rapid antigen tests have been delivered to Victorian schools ahead of students returning to the classroom on Monday.
Health Minister Martin Foley on Friday said he was confident that students and staff would have access to a rapid test, with another 4.6 million tests on their way and expected to arrive by Monday.
They will be distributed across government, Catholic and independent schools.
“How each of those schools, and we’re talking thousands of schools, get those out to their communities and their families are matters that those communities are best placed to deal with,” Mr Foley said.
“We’re confident that system will be in place and up and running for the school year. That will be an important part in giving families, the education workforce and the wider community confidence that schools, once they open, will stay open.
“I am a very firm believer that will empower those school communities (and) those families, to take the steps … to ensure that in the likelihood that there is some level of outbreak at schools that they can respond quickly.”
Mr Foley said health authorities were anticipating an uptick in cases with more than one million students returning to the classroom.
“We think that we’re in a position to respond quickly to that,” he added.
Almost 38 per cent of children aged between five and 11 have received a dose of the paediatric vaccine, with almost 5000 being inoculated in the past 24 hours.
Mr Foley said Victoria had hopes of vaccinating every eligible child.
“We want to see every one of those, who are eligible, to get vaccinated. That’s our target. That’s how we’re going to drive down the Omicron variant, and that’s how we’re going to be best positioned for whatever curveball the global pandemic (next) pitches at us.”
Victoria recorded 12,755 new cases and 39 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours.
There are now 988 infected people in Victorian hospitals, with 114 in intensive care and 40 on ventilators.
A total of 24,467 PCR tests were taken on Wednesday and 23,252 vaccines were administered at state hubs.
TEENS GET GREEN LIGHT FOR BOOSTERS
Teenagers as young as sixteen could soon be eligible for the Covid booster after the nation’s drug regulator gave the Pfizer vaccine the green light.
This means teens in this age group no longer need to wait until they turn 18 before they can recharge their immunity with an extra jab.
In a statement on Friday, the Therapeutic Goods Administration said the Pfizer jab had been provisionally approved in teens aged 16 to 17 years.
“This decision follows the provisional approval granted by the TGA to Pfizer for the use of COMIRNATY as a booster in individuals 18 years and older on 26 October 2021. Booster doses of COMIRNATY in this age group have been approved for use in the US, Israel and the UK,” it said.
Australia has joined the US, UK and Israel in boosting teens.
HEALTH EXPERT SHUNS QR CODES
A leading epidemiologist says Victorians can’t truly begin to live with the virus while still being forced to use QR code check-ins.
It comes as Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday conceded that QR code check-in data was not being used for contact tracing.
“When we’ve got as many cases as we’ve got, and you’re up against a variant that is as wildly infectious and is easily transmitted as Omicron, we’re well beyond outbreaks and contact tracing,” the Premier said.
But the government has no immediate plans to scrap the mandate, and Mr Andrews admitted it helped to police the vaccinated economy.
Victorians are required to check in to all public settings, with more than 89 million check-ins recorded across the state since the beginning of January.
Despite calls to scrap the requirement given that people can still prove their vaccination status through the Service Victoria app without handing over their data, Mr Andrews said the government would hold firm.
“These things are not going to be there forever, but they’ll be there for as long as the experts tell us they serve a purpose. They’re useful, they’re important and it’s sad that we’ve got to have all these elaborate systems to keep people out, who have made the wrong choice,” he said.
Infectious diseases physician Peter Collignon said it was time for the Victorian government to “rethink QR codes” other than in some high-risk settings like gyms or aged care homes.
“The value is less nowadays because the definition of a close contact is much different now,” he said.
“When you were going for zero Covid or low case numbers, you wanted to catch everybody but now it’s a different story. Our attitude to Covid has to change. We’ve got to learn to live with this, and the trouble with QR codes is you don’t get to move on if you’re still making people check in to every place they go.”
Former World Health Organisation epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said QR codes were not serving a purpose.
“When you start having hundreds or thousands of cases, tracing breaks down,” he said.
Professor Esterman added that it was a “low-impost” requirement and a “good habit” to prepare people for future pandemics, but it was up to governments to clearly explain the justification for their use.
“We’ve had very poor messaging from all levels of government,” he said. “When you ask someone to do something, tell them exactly why you’re doing it and what it’s achieving. That’s something they haven’t done, so you can understand why people are saying ‘why am I doing this?’.”
Opposition small business spokesman David Southwick said “businesses shouldn’t have to wear the cost of QR code compliance if the data isn’t even being used”.
“Victorians have followed the rules but are genuinely asking why they are handing over personal data if it’s just sitting on a government server,” he said.
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Originally published as Omicron creating huge fears as CBD traders on their knees
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