Restaurants issue plea for early Covid-19 NSW lockdown orders

The nation’s peak hospitality body is calling on the NSW government to outline its plans for the state’s lockdown by Thursday.

Bondi Trattoria co-owner Alasdair France said he had been forced to stand down most of his 20 staff members. Picture: Jane Dempster

The nation’s peak hospitality body is calling on the NSW government to outline its plans for the state’s lockdown by Thursday, saying the uncertainty was compounding the financial burden and stifling contingency planning across the troubled industry.

NSW recorded 35 fresh cases of the virus in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, with seven of those cases active in the community for several days while infectious.

As thousands of staff continued to be stood down, health officials on Monday deflected questions on whether they would extend or revoke the lockdown orders by Friday as planned, saying their decision would be guided by data over the rest of the week.

The Australian has learned three cabinet ministers – John Barilaro, Dominic Perrottet and Stuart Ayres – are currently devising plans to keep the state open and functioning without the need for ongoing lockdowns.

The plans are still being drafted and are understood to require more work before being approved by health officials and the Premier.

Restaurants and Catering Australia CEO Wes Lambert said clarity was needed by Thursday at the latest so restaurants and other hospitality providers could place orders and “try to have as normal a weekend as possible”.

He said venues were already facing a difficult decision ahead whether to order stock, stand up staff and proceed with events over the weekend, or whether to cancel plans in advance due to the possibility of an extended lockdown.

“Businesses in NSW who are now entering their second week of lockdown are being forced to read the tea leaves on when this lockdown will end,” Mr Lambert told The Australian.

“While rumours are circulating wildly about an extension, no clear trigger has been proposed about when (the lockdown) will end. (We) implore the government to give businesses some lead time – don’t leave it until Friday morning.”

Bondi Trattoria co-owner Alasdair France said he had been forced to stand down most of his 20 staff members; it is the third time the business has closed since the start of the pandemic.

“It’s pretty heartbreaking,” he said, adding an early announcement would not necessarily guarantee the smooth running of his restaurant by the weekend, given suppliers had likely reduced stock.

“You can’t get an announcement on Friday night and be ready on Saturday morning. You need at a minimum 24 hours’ notice to put in orders and get deliveries and prep.”

Officials remain concerned over a number of burgeoning exposure sites across Sydney, including Royal North Shore Hospital and Fairfield Hospital, where an unvaccinated student nurse worked while exposed to the virus between June 24 and June 28.

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association general secretary Brett Holmes said up to 500 staff had been forced into isolation at RNSH, forcing the cancellations of elective surgery, and 120 at Fairfield Hospital.

“All efforts are being put in to try to keep the system going but it’s certainly the biggest challenge we’ve had since the start of Covid,” Mr Holmes said.

Officials also expressed disappointment over a small party held on the first night of the Greater Sydney lockdown, on June 26, at Meriton Suites in the Sydney suburb of Waterloo.

A health alert issued on Monday ordered staff, visitors or contractors who had attended the building since then to seek testing and isolate pending further advice.

Elsewhere, an additional two cases of Covid-19 were recorded at the SummitCare nursing home in Sydney’s northwest, taking its total number of infections to five after an unvaccinated worker contracted the virus a week ago.

Michelle Sloan, the facility’s chief operating officer, said four of the known cases were vaccinated, although unvaccinated staff continued to work at the facility.

“If we said to all of our unvaccinated staff ‘don’t come to work’, then there’d be no one to care,” she told reporters.

National cabinet agreed last week to enforce a mandatory requirement that aged-care workers receive their first dose of a vaccine by September.