Coronavirus: Who ordered a nightmare? asks restaurateur

Simonn Hawke was busy carting $20,000 worth of fresh seafood and gourmet cheese into her restaurant’s kitchen when the phone rang on Tuesday morning.

Simone Hawke and Leah Morphett in their shut-down venue in Orange in central-west NSW. Picture: Graham Schumann

Simonn Hawke was busy carting $20,000 worth of fresh seafood and gourmet cheese into her restaurant’s kitchen when the phone rang on Tuesday morning.

“My partner, Leah, answered,” Ms Hawke said. “She beckoned me over, and I could see she was tearing up on the phone. I knew something was wrong.”

On the other end of the line, an official with NSW Health was describing a small business’ worst nightmare. A teenager who had tested positive for COVID-19 had dined at the venue Ms Hawke owns with partner Leah Morphett, the Birdie Noshery and Drinking Est., in the NSW town of Orange. The 18-year-old man was at the restaurant from 12.30pm to 2pm on Sunday.

“I had just served my 200th breakfast that morning,” Ms Hawke said.

“We employ about 24 people and our core kitchen team all worked on Sunday. It’s a beast of a place, we are pumping out 200 to 300 breakfasts on the weekend.”

On Tuesday, NSW recorded four new locally acquired cases. Another case — the 18-year-old — will be reported on Wednesday and was brought to the attention of health officials only after the 8pm cutoff. He is linked to the ­Berala cluster in western Sydney, which grew to 15 on Tuesday.

It comes as several other NSW towns, including Broken Hill, ­Orange and Nyngan, were put on high alert on Tuesday following confirmation the teenager had travelled through western regions of the state on a camping trip.

“We’ve been so lucky in Orange, but clearly it’s a double-edged sword,” Ms Hawke said. “Understandably, people want to get out of Sydney but now my business and my staff and our community are paying the price.”

She said “half of her staff” had been “wiped out” and would be unable to work for two weeks, not to mention the amount of fresh stock that will go to waste.

“We’ve worked so hard to make the business safe so this is just so devastating for us,” Ms Hawke said. “We opened last year and we’ve only just hit our stride, so this is a big financial blow.”

The couple, who also own ­Orange’s only “hatted” restaurant, Lolli Redini, said they would struggle to staff that restaurant after key workers were forced to begin a 14-day isolation on ­Tuesday.

“We’ve also got to find other staff who have the same skill level so that we can keep that open,” Ms Hawke said.

On Tuesday, testing facilities in Orange were rapidly expanded in an effort to cope with an influx of anxious residents who were desperate to get a COVID-19 swab.

The line of cars at the Orange Showground drive-through had ballooned to 50 by 1pm, and by 4pm some residents were reportedly queuing for up to two hours at the Orange Hospital Fever Clinic.

“There’s been some tears and people are really concerned,” Ms Hawke said. “Hopefully, we’ve caught the virus early and it doesn’t spread further.”