Inside the Thai Rock cluster

Their restaurant business was blamed for a major Covid cluster. What was the fallout for the owners of Thai Rock?

To be an inadvertent Covid super-spreader, forcing thousands into isolation and states into lockdown, causing untold misery, would be mortifying. For a business whose name becomes inextricably linked with a cluster – simply because they were unlucky enough to have a Covid-positive staff member or customer – it’s no less crushing.

Which brings us to Fiona Harari’s story on the owners of Sydney’s Thai Rock restaurants. A year ago they were at the centre of an outbreak that would eventually number 154 cases. It was known as the Thai Rock cluster, its name forevermore linked with the pandemic. For the owners it was devastating; the blame and opprobrium directed at them as upsetting as the impact on their business. In the aftermath, they reopened their restaurants and made one crucial decision: they would keep the name Thai Rock.