Covid fears reach western Sydney as businesses close

Heng Luong and his wife Lee have owned their fruit shop in Cabramatta for the past 18 years. They have never seen it so quiet.

Heng Luong and his wife Lee have the fruit but not the customers at their shop in Cabramatta. Picture: Jane Dempster/ The Australian

Heng Luong, owner of Heng’s Vegetable and Fruit Market in Cabramatta, has never seen his shop so quiet.

Despite surviving a four-month lockdown in 2020, Mr Luong is adamant his customers have been scared off by the threat of the Delta Covid-19 variant surging across Sydney.

“It feels like the city has died,” he said. “Everyone is just so afraid, we don’t know what to do.”

Mr Heng stood slumped over his blue trolley, among rows and rows of vibrant fruit that had been skewered with signs boasting generous discounts.

“Even when we cut down our prices the people don’t come,” he said with an exasperated sigh.

“When will this Covid finally come to an end?”

All of Greater Sydney was plunged into a 14-day lockdown on the weekend to gain control over the latest fast-spreading outbreak.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said “given how transmissible” the virus is, the government wanted to “stay a step ahead” of the spread.

Venues from Manly to Merrylands have joined NSW Health’s growing list of potential exposure sites, stoking fear in people across the city.

“I’m hoping this is my last shopping trip for the next two weeks, so I don’t have to leave my house again,” Canley Heights resident Ling Huang said. “I just want to get this over with.”

Policemen were dotted along the main strip of Cabramatta in Sydney’s west on Sunday, offering masks to homeless people and taking down the names of the few failing to comply with the public health orders.

Jarrod Martin picks up a free meal at The Duke of Enmore pub. Jane Dempster/The Australian.

“People are generally happy to comply, but there’s a large sense of frustration among those who aren’t,” one police officer said.

“They just don’t know when they are going to be able to provide for their families this week.”

Many usually bustling restaurants had stacked their tables and chairs, conceding that they would not have dine in customers for two weeks, while others had spilt out onto the street with collapsible tables piled high with takeaway containers filled to the brim with rice, meat and vegetables.

Mask salesmen sauntered down the street, holding bundles of cash in one hand and waving flimsy face coverings in the other.

While Ms Berejiklian initially said the lockdown would last for 14 days with the opportunity to cut it short if infection rates dropped, Deputy Premier John Barilaro told the public to settle in for the full two weeks.

“We discussed whether seven days was sufficient but we know it takes 14 days to go through a cycle,” he said on Sunday.

The lockdown has hit the hospitality sector especially hard, with James Thorpe, the owner of the Odd Culture Group that includes pubs The Duke of Enmore and The Oxford Tavern, offering stood-down hospitality workers free meals.

“If you’re having trouble or not feeling good about your finances or your life or where things are going, just come down and we’ll sort you out,” he said.

“It’s one way we can help people who have these stressors in their life, some people really do live hand to mouth with casuals and shift workers living pay cheque to pay cheque and having a shift cancelled or not means the difference between buying dinner and paying rent.”