Victorian government shuts down seven businesses for Covid-19 compliance breaches

One state government has shut down seven businesses, including a beauty salon, after ‘flagrant’ breaches of the Covid rules.

A retail store and a beauty venue in Melbourne are among seven Victorian businesses shut down for breaching the state’s CovidSafe regulations.

More than $52,000 in fines have been handed out to businesses over the past three months, after authorised officers visited 22,000 venues as part of a crackdown on noncompliance with the chief health officer’s directions.

Among the closed down businesses was a shop in St Albans that was trading without authorisation during lockdown and a health and beauty salon in South Melbourne.

The salon was shut down for exceeding density limits and having no density quota signage, no CovidSafe plan and no QR code check-in system.

Acting Police and Emergency Services Minister Danny Pearson said the shutdowns should flag for other businesses to pick up their act. Picture: Wayne Taylor

The state government operation resulted in 17 infringement notices being issued, with a further 275 written warnings, 598 improvement notices and 40 Covid-19 notices for noncompliance with health directions handed out.

In the last week alone, 168 instances of businesses not adhering to the state’s QR code rules were detected.

Victoria’s Acting Police and Emergency Services Minister Danny Pearson said the action should serve as fair warning to all businesses that “flagrantly breach the rules” aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus.

Melbourne has recently emerged from a forth lockdown. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“The chief health officer’s directions are in place to keep us all safe and we expect businesses to be doing their part to follow the rules and help keep Victoria open,” he said.

“QR code check in data is so important for our contact tracers to get on top of outbreaks quickly and there is no excuse for failing to keep these details if you are required to do so.

“This is a warning to all businesses – if you flagrantly breach the rules, we will not hesitate to issue fines or even shut you down to protect public safety.”