The COVID call no restaurant wants
In this day and age, there is no restaurant in the country (the world even) that looks forward to a call from state authorities.
Especially when that authority is calling to deliver that a diner who visited their restaurant is COVID positive.
The Cabramatta-based Tan Viet restaurant, which has a 30-year history behind it, received such a call on Sunday afternoon.
Tan Viet was informed that a couple who is COVID positive dined at their Vietnamese restaurant prior to being diagnosed.
Staff at the restaurant immediately shut their doors and started the cleaning and tracing processes required of them by NSW Health. All contact details, including staff and customer details, were passed on for contact tracin. Tan Viet also hired Bams Hygiene Management for a thorough sanitised clean: Bams has been hired for a number of COVID-related sanitation jobs in NSW.
The deep clean took six hours and is likely to cost the owners close to $6000.
"There are three different tiers of deep-cleaning, and this was the highest: PPE, the masks, the [hazmat] suits, the cleaning of every surface. They cleaned every single page of the menus," says Lam who works in the Tan Viet group's operations team.
Tan Viet had a COVID safe business plan in place.
All clients were required to provide their contact details, use hand sanitiser and were seated in the dining room in line with the four-square-metre density rule.
Yet, as their experience highlights, no matter how many precautions are taken, you can never be sure who is carrying the virus and can infect those around you.
COVID rules are there to protect not only the public, but also staff members of the restaurant.
"These are members of our family, members who are part of management. We don't muck around in regards to their health and safety," said Jasper Parkes who works in Tan Viet group's operations team.
With two public COVID incidents linked to the restaurant on two separate days, Tan Viet has taken to social media and their website to answer questions relating to their business operations. The restaurant announced that staff were not rotated across the three Tan Viet restaurants in Sydney and that all staff have undergone COVID testing, with no-one returning positive results.
Tan Viet has been open about its situation.
"It's a social issue. It's a public health issue. It doesn't help anyone to be hiding anything, especially if you're doing the right thing," Parkes said.
"Friends, family – we wanted to give them that piece of mind," Lam said.
The restaurant group had only recently reopened after the March lockdown. They remained shut in April but started takeaway services in May. By June they were able to have dine in customers once restrictions eased.
For now, all three Tan Viet restaurants remain closed. They have been cleared and are safe to re-open but are waiting to see what will come of the current COVID numbers in NSW.
The case highlights the significance of doing the right thing during these trying times.
Irit Jackson, 10th August 2020
