Covid exposures force Queensland restaurants to shut during ‘busiest week of the year’
Queensland restaurants looking forward to a bumper Christmas as tourists return are instead shutting their doors as Covid case numbers increase in the state.
Some 300,000 people from Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, which have been experiencing high case numbers, travelled into Queensland after it opened its borders on 13 December.
The hospitality industry was already crippled by staff shortages caused by closed borders and a lack of migrants and backpackers. Now restaurants are being forced to close as staff found to be close contacts must quarantine for a week.
Noosa has been hit hard because of the small population pool, the dominance of the tourism industry, and the influx of tourists from other states.
In one venue, Sum Yung Guys, 23 staff have been deemed close contacts after another tested positive, and has closed for a week. Popular restaurant Bistro C is shut until 27 December, Paradise Arcade has closed until further notice and Theo’s Social Club has closed until 30 December.
Wes Lambert, Restaurant and Catering Australia’s chief executive, said people were frustrated seeing tourists enter the state from Covid hotspots without isolating while staff had to quarantine.
“The hospitality industry in Queensland was one of the hardest hit industries and continues to be so as we enter into the fourth wave with the Omicron variant,” he said.
“There are inconsistencies in rules, where business owners are confused about why you can enter the state with a test within 72 hours while their staff must isolate at home for seven days even after a test.
“This has led to mass [closures] … as many businesses face an even more critical staff shortage and are unable to trade.”
Sum Yung Guy’s Matt Sinclair revealed on Facebook that the entire crew from a night shift had to isolate for a week, making it impossible to open during the “busiest week of the year”.
“It’s not really the roadmap we saw
coming out of the borders opening, the rebirth of the Queensland economy, getting businesses going again,” he said.
“Losing staff because we had to enforce the mandate of them being double-vaxxed, turning away people who aren’t vaccinated, for what? I don’t know, right now, because we’ve ended up in the same place.”
More than 12,000 people have signed a petition on Sum Yung Guys’ Facebook page calling for “business as usual” with no more contact tracing or restrictions.
Michael Fowler, manager of Locale restaurant, said two of his staff were already isolating and another was getting tested.
“We’re just being hammered with the opening of the borders,” he said.
“The majority of people here are from Melbourne and Sydney, we’ve been flooded with people from there. Restaurants were hanging on until Christmas, and now they have to shut.”
Indoor mask mandates were introduced for a range of Queensland venues including restaurants on Thursday as the state recorded 369 new Covid cases.
Asked about the hospitality sector, the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said the government was aware it was at a “critical juncture”.
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“Which is why we are mandating masks in hospitality. This is an added measure to keep our businesses open,” she said.
A government spokesperson said the quarantine period for fully vaccinated close contacts had already been reduced from 14 days to seven. Visitors did not have to isolate but close contacts did, because they had “a higher risk than other people in the community of developing Covid-19,” the spokesperson said.