There are lessons to be learnt here by NSW Premier Perrottet's COVID-19 crisis committee - now renamed the COVID and Economic Recovery Committee - and NSW Health. However I'm not quite sure that they will learn these.
Lesson Number One: As government & its agencies rollback aspects of the public health response to the Delta Variant Outbreak make sure these changes are fully explain in detail to regional communities - especially those experiencing COVID-19 community transmission for the first time since the outbreak began in June 2021.
Make your explanations at a local level via commercial & community radio, newspapers, television - as well as by social media - and make the effort to inform in a timely manner.
Don't just do this once. Put your hands in departmental pockets and pay for community notices/advertisements every time changes are made - because what you are doing now just breeds distrust.
The Daily Telegraph, 25 October 2021:
Owners of a South Grafton business say they are disappointed at the lack of communication from NSW Health authorities after a person with Covid-19 visited their store.
Almost two weeks have passed since a Covid-positive customer entered Craig’s Birdplace and Pet Shop, but owners Linda and Iven Craig said they had not been notified by NSW Health.
“We were actually informed through a friend of the person who tested positive; they wanted to get the information out there as soon as possible,” Mrs Craig said.
“We contacted the health department who told us someone will call us back for further instructions, but they never did.” The next day, the pet shop, along with several other South Grafton businesses, was listed as a venue of concern on the NSW Health website.
“It was on Facebook, mentioned on television news, mentioned in the paper, that we were a positive contact, but still the health department hadn’t contacted us, and still haven’t contacted us,” Mrs Craig said.
“Another business down the road had no idea they were even on the list because no one had contacted them.” Mrs Craig said they immediately closed the store, cleaned the site and everyone got tested.
Thankfully all received a negative result.
They then reviewed security footage to find out how many people entered the store on October 5 between 2pm and 2.30pm, when the person with the virus reportedly visited.
“Only four came here during that time-frame, but only two scanned in,” Mrs Craig said.
After making her own inquiries, Mrs Craig said it turned out the customers who visited in that time-frame all tested negative to the virus.
“We actually discovered that the time (the customer with Covid-19 visited the store) was wrong,” she said.
“The positive person didn’t come in between 2pm and 2.30pm, they came in between 3pm and 3.30pm.” Mrs Craig said the person was wearing a mask in the store, but failed to sign in.
“We’ve heard that the person has gotten over it really well,” she said. “They said they didn’t have any signs and felt perfectly healthy.” Mrs Craig said she was frustrated with the health department. “With all the contact tracing and alerting, it’s just disappointing to see that they’re still not getting it right,” she said.
But the couple was buoyed by the support shown by the South Grafton community. “We got a lot of messages of support from customers and a big increase in business because people didn’t want to see us go down,” she said.
“It was also really incredible when the owner of Pets Domain in South rang us and said they could bring their staff over to help run the shop if we couldn’t.
“We’re supposed to be rivals, but it just goes to show how special this community is.” NSW Health has been contacted for comment.
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