Ballan is waiting with bated breath after a service station just out of town was announced as a COVID-19 exposure site on Monday night.
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The state government announced a Western Freeway Mobil service station and attached McDonald's as tier one exposure sites about 10.30pm on Monday after a group of three infectious removalists visited the site last Thursday evening.
Ballarat Health Services have set up a pop-up testing site at Ballan Railway Station in response to the exposure site.
The testing site will operate between 9am and 6pm until further notice, with no appointments necessary.
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While the service station and McDonald's are considered tier one sites, BHS said customers who used the drive-thru were not at risk unless they left their car, touched shared surfaces or entered the building.
Ballan's main thoroughfare, Inglis Street, was quieter than usual on Tuesday morning following the announcement, with some shops closed while others carried on with their days.
The post office, the hub of any small town, was still busy with customers picking up and dropping off parcels. Manager Randa Kondos said she was more cautious after the announcement.
"We've sanitised everything again and then we're sanitising excessively obviously in between transactions," she said.
"Feeling a little bit uncomfortable about the transactions with the customers yesterday, I'm trying to recall who I actually had dealt with throughout the day, but I guess I'm probably the same as everybody else, just trying to do the right thing.
"A lot of people that come into the town will come into the post office. Even if they don't have to do anything at the post office, they will come into the post office just because it's just one of those places that they come into so that's my worry at the moment."
Country Grocers IGA is the only supermarket in town, meaning just about everyone in Ballan will visit over the course of a week.
Store manager Ashlee Brooker said it was alarming to wake up on Tuesday morning to learn of the new exposure site but the store was immediately on the ball, placing staff at the door in addition to its existing check-in and sanitising stations.
"We've been pretty on top of everything already though. For us, today, we're not shifting anything. It's just more about maintaining it and making sure everybody's on top of it," she said.
"If this becomes a thing, we have that much foot traffic through the door that we're going to be impacted, but we're still fingers crossed and hoping not and it's not going to be."
Ms Brooker said this was the closest scare for Ballan since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March last year.
"It's alarming, it's probably the most alarming thing that we've had so far in the entire COVID process because nothing I know of came this far or this close last time," she said.
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"You've got to wait for everybody to get tested so what we're doing right now is we're just waiting. If test results come back and it is what it is, I think tomorrow will be a different day of concern but there's not much we can do at this present time.
"We've liaised with IGA and we have some cleaners on standby, we've done everything we need to, ready in case the worst happens and we need to deal with that when we deal with that."
Ballan Bakery manager Lisa Perugini said reality had hit home after the exposure site was announced.
"I think it's gonna cause panic. I'm not panicking or anything, but we're more aware," she said.
"Not only that, it's affected the town, the town's quiet and businesses are quiet once again so back to square one. That's how everybody feels.
"You hear it on the news, you hear about what's going on interstate and whatever but Ballan's been safe. It's hit home now. It's real. That's the only way I can describe it."
Deakin University chair of epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett said it was important to establish a quick understanding of exposure sites.
"You don't want the virus being established anywhere else so the most important thing is having a quick understanding if there has been an exposure and we do have that, it's three or four days," she said.
"It's still within that critical first few days where if you do find someone has become infectious that you will find their close contacts before they're infectious, even if they go on to acquire an infection themselves."
Professor Bennett said anyone who had been at either site should get tested immediately and not delay it to contain any outbreak.
"The most important thing is that people are coming forward for testing. Even if you feel absolutely fine, getting tested is is the most critical thing at this stage and people there at the specific time should be following the orders and isolating and communicating with the health department when their test results are in," she said.
"It'd be good to know that you're cleared and to do it quickly because if you might have picked up the virus, you want to know as quickly as you can, that way you are not putting other friends and family at risk."
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