SWAN Hill businesses are being forced to close or reduce their hours as COVID cases skyrocket and staff are forced into isolation.
Boo’s Place Cafe and Provedore closed its doors until next week while 10 staff members awaited COVID test results.
A store spokesperson announced the news on Facebook on Wednesday with an initial few staff in isolation causing the Boo’s Lakeside address to close.
As more staff, who were all close contacts, required testing, the Swan Hill-based store was also forced to close.
“The COVID madness sadly continues in 2022 for us,” the spokesperson posted.
“If only we had access to the Rapid Antigen Tests or if it wouldn’t take five-plus days for results to come back.”
Bikes and Trikes Swan Hill has also been left short-staffed with a team member isolating with COVID-19.
The staff member had not been at the store since Friday, December 31 and was expected to be back mid-next week.
Customers were advised the shop would be trading at reduced hours in the meantime.
Swan Hill Bakehouse had also been closed earlier in the week, but not for COVID-19 related reasons.
“A few staff had gastro which is also going around but everyone is healthy again now,” store owner Karen McKenzie said.
“In the coming weeks we probably will have to deal with COVID-19 here, too, though.
“It certainly seems it will affect us all, so we would have to either close or work with less staff if that happened.”
