Ballarat businesses have been praised for their quick response to the developing outbreak situation on Tuesday.
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Shortly after being told their were exposure sites on Tuesday, The Forge Pizzeria and the Lake View Hotel took to social media to inform their customer base of the rapidly evolving situation.
Posts from each business received hundreds of likes, comments and shares and news spread throughout the community.
The Forge Pizzeria director Tim Matthews said the business already had plans in place and put them into action immediately after receiving the news.
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"Right from the start, you think about the case and the person, that's where our attention went, first and foremost, and if they're okay and then it goes to the staff and the customers that were in here," he said.
"We've been sort of focused on that and then by the time you sort of take time to look at what the public response is, it was really heartening to see such public support of the staff and The Forge in general.
"Thanks to the community for the support. It's really humbling. It can be quite a stressful time and, as a business owner, you've got lots to do, you don't have a lot of resources to do it like maybe some of the larger institutions do, so it's really good to have that community support."
Mr Matthews said after staff were informed, they were immediately on the phones to inform whichever customers they could.
"We just wanted to get it out there as quick as possible. We immediately contacted our bookings or any of the customer details which we had," he said.
"Obviously, the staff were phoned straight away and then we could provide a little bit more information to the public, but all that happened really quickly and we just went through making sure that we've filed all the right processes."
Commerce Ballarat chief executive Jodie Gillett said the quick response from the businesses gave the community more reason to trust in the sector's commitment to keeping it safe.
"I think the business community is ready to react if they need to and we saw that yesterday with the Lake View and The Forge, just coming out on the front foot, taking care of their staff and their community, doing everything they need to do to keep us all safe and that's fantastic," she said.
"It's devastating for them to have to close and to have to go through all this process, but our community got right behind them last night which was just amazing to see all of the messages of support and the promises to be back in the minute that they open their doors. The Ballarat community has been pretty amazing this past 18 months and continues to be so."
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