Bombshell Co and Thai Orchid are among local businesses attempting to quash this misinformation, which has plagued many exposure sites connected to the local cluster.
This comes after Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton clarified on October 14 that not all high-risk sites or locations of concern were related to the Melbourne man.
Some sites were also linked to the Shepparton cluster — three locals who tested positive to the virus late Tuesday, October 13 after unknowingly catching it from the Melbourne truck driver when he visited Shepparton on September 30.
“So people who are visiting the golf shop or some of those other cafes and restaurants relate to these latest cases and not to the case who travelled on September 30,” Prof Sutton said.
But Bombshell Co owner Kaye Kuch said in the absence of information at the beginning of the outbreak, people assumed the truck driver had visited the salon.
“(They thought) we accepted a Melbourne resident for a haircut. We want to be clear that we didn’t,” she said.
“In fact, we did quite the opposite. We’ve actually turned away lots of people who are Melbourne residents who have either phoned for appointments or walked into the shop.
“It wasn’t the Melbourne truck driver, but a regular customer. She had no idea she was infected.”
In a Facebook post, Thai Orchid said it had also been caught up in similar rumours.
“We did not have the index case . . . in our business. Nor would we have allowed the index case to dine in our restaurant,” a spokesperson said.
“These words have consequences and potentially lead people to believe that business owners who are already under severe pressure get blamed when they have done everything correct.
“Those cases who did attend our business were local and completely unaware of the infection. These people conducted themselves perfectly in our restaurant.”
As a small salon, Ms Kuch said she and the rest of the Bombshell Co team knew their clients — and if they didn't, they asked where they were from.
“People have been straight up, they’ve told us and we’ve politely explained that we can’t help them due to the restrictions,” she said.
But Ms Kuch said she still saw misinformation swirling around social media.
“Some people commented online, saying, ‘He went here, here and here’. And I’ve replied and said, ‘That’s not correct, he didn’t attend these places’,” she said.
“People need to have confidence that we have done, and are doing, the right thing for our clients and our community.”
Thai Orchid said it had gone "above and beyond" normal COVID-safe protocols — and its efforts have certainly paid off.
“In most other cluster situations, there is only one person who is infected. We had two confirmed cases that dined,” a spokesperson said.
“Having two confirmed cases attend and have zero transmissions is unheard of. We are eternally grateful to our staff.”
Last week's nightmare proved the importance of businesses having a COVID-safe plan in place, according to Ms Kuch.
“We took the restrictions seriously and implemented a . . . plan well before it was required because we didn’t want to be ‘that business’,” she said.
State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed encouraged people to access their information from trustworthy sources like the DHHS website or daily COVID-19 media conferences.
“Social media is a dangerous place to get accurate information, unless it's from an approved website,” she said.
“People can also access up-to-date COVID-19 information on the Goulburn Valley Health Facebook page or GV Health chief executive Matt Sharp's Facebook page.”
Ms Sheed praised local businesses and individuals for following health advice.
“The low virus numbers show the people who were infected — but didn't know they were — also did the right thing,” she said.
“This has been such a good result.”
For more information, visit dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus or coronavirus.vic.gov.au/covidsafe-plan or call the coronavirus hotline on 1800 675 398.
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