Local restaurants are also being urged to keep detailed contact lists of customers, after Shepparton’s contact tracing team reported record keeping has been lax “across the board”, slowing contact tracing efforts.
As part of a webinar hosted by Committee for Greater Shepparton on Friday, local business owners heard from Julyan Howard, operations lead for the Hume contact tracing team.
Mr Howard discussed how contact tracing worked, processes businesses could put in place to mitigate risk and the importance of having a COVID-19 plan in place.
He said restaurants were particularly high-risk when it came to spreading the virus, making it vital for hospitality venues to keep detailed records.
“We had a number of young people visiting restaurant after restaurant over a series of five days and people sitting opposite each other in restaurants, and that’s where they were picking it up,” he said.
“But when we phoned the restaurants to get their contact lists, it was lax across the board.
“We really push for our local restaurants to have strong records and know the dates and times people come and go, so we can act quickly in quarantining people and knowing who close contacts are.”
But it’s not just restaurants – other local businesses are also encouraged to keep records of staff to ensure the contact tracing team could act swiftly if needed.
“In a recent case, an employee at a local business tested positive to COVID-19,” he said.
“That person wasn’t in the infectious stage while they were working there, but their employers still did a really good job of identifying all the staff that may have been in contact with that worker.
“They were very responsive and very good to work with.”
Above all, Mr Howard said it was crucial businesses put processes in place to ensure people who were unwell didn’t come to work.
“We will be locked down forever and a day if we don’t start pushing this home: if you’re sick, don’t come to work,” he said.
“Most positive cases we’ve seen aren’t getting really sick – for the most part, it’s a scratchy throat or sore throat, a headache and a bit of an upset tummy.
“And it’s only lasting two or three days and they’re better.”
Mr Howard said tearooms were risky when it came to the spread of infection, as were bathrooms.
“Get people outside instead of gathering in tearooms,” he said.
“And as always, make sure you’re cleaning door handles, bathrooms and flushing toilets with the lid down.”
If an employee tested positive to COVID-19, Mr Howard said businesses could be confident any close contacts would be informed.
“Our contact tracing team will contact businesses if there’s a risk within their workplace,” he said.
“We’re not obliged to notify workplaces unless that person worked during the infectious period.”
Based at Goulburn Valley Health, the contact tracing team tracks, traces and monitors active COVID-19 cases across the region via phone in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services.
Their primary task is to make contact with people who have tested positive for the virus, establish infectious periods, identify their movements and close contacts and provide them with information about self-isolating.
The team also escalates when people’s conditions worsen and continues to support cases and contacts until they are no longer considered infectious or at risk of developing COVID-19.
To learn more about developing a COVID-19 safety plan at your workplace, visit safeworkaustralia.gov.au/covid-19-information-workplaces