A hospitality sector already suffering from staff shortages is now dealing with further issues created by isolation rules and testing delays due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
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While some Ballarat venues chose to take a break to begin the year, others have had to remain closed for longer than planned due to a lack of staff.
Popular Armstrong Street South American restaurant Pancho had to extend its Christmas break by a couple of days to January 7 due to the virus.
Only exacerbating the issue for businesses is the lack of available testing and long waits for results forcing staff into isolation.
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According to the Victorian Department of Health website, anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 must self-isolate for seven days after the date they got tested and return to work once they have completed their seven-day self-isolation.
Workplace contacts who have symptoms must get a PCR test and isolate until they return an negative result and those without symptoms are recommended to take rapid antigen tests daily for five days, or get a PCR test if symptoms emerge.
While close contacts are now only required to take a rapid antigen test, a lack of availability has left PCR testing as the only testing method, but that comes with a stay in isolation until results a received, which may take up to five days, according to UFS Dispensaries, rather than the 24 hours it did previously.
This means staff who need to get tested may have to wait up to five days in isolation before receiving a negative result and returning to work, while also extending the isolation period for those that tested positive.
While it has not been directly affected by positive tests and isolating staff, The Forge Pizzeria is one of many hospitality venues to be affected by staff shortages and is planning for it as an eventuality.
Director Tim Matthews said it was difficult to plan for something that could happen without notice.
"As COVID isolation rules come across the business as well and more of our staff and customers interact with the virus, it's highly likely that we're going to have to plan for various scenarios, including opening and closing at different times and offering different services," he said.
"You see a lot of businesses at the moment that have closed down for a holiday period, I guess that will continue as staff shortages become a real concern either through lack of skills, lack of immigration, the fact that you can't fast-track training to get people up to speed and then, obviously, the isolation on top of that is going to go into compound that, but it's something that we have to plan for so we are prepared for that."
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Mr Matthews said as the Omicron variant spreads, it would have an effect on how his business operated.
"We expect the isolation requirements and as more people catch this variant, we definitely expect them to have time off out of the business that will impact how we can do business. It's going to be challenging for staff and customers and all businesses," he said.
"Probably one of the trickiest things is that you have to plan for staff shortages but that can come up on the day or mid-shift and they might be told about a contact and they have to go and get a test.
"I think all staff are pretty good with managing their symptoms and making sure that they're not coming to work with symptoms, but we're going to have to be ready to act pretty quickly and so probably ask all our customers to be patient with that."
The Red Lion Hotel has also had to reduce its operations, with its main bistro and bar areas closed after multiple staff tested positive following a New Year's Eve function.
Publican and Australian Hotels Association Victoria president David Canny said the long wait for test results was causing pubs and restaurants the most frustration.
"Operators are doing a fantastic job trying to keep the businesses operating to some capacity where they can, but frustratingly having to shut down a number of parts of their business or just reduce their capacities. We would much rather this than shutting down and having forced closures of lockdowns," he said.
"We've just limited our capacity significantly to be able to stay open with a few staff operating, so not closed but I'm hearing today a number of hotels have closed and are sitting out that five or six day period until staff can get back to work.
"We think the method of not shutting venues down but starting having to isolate is a better system than shutting down, it's just simply we need to get over the time it takes to get to get the test and then return a negative result, or even a positive result, so that the clocks starts ticking earlier on their isolation period."
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