Café owners up in arms about new work from home recommendations
Australia's chief medical officer is under fire from frustrated café owners who say reinstating certain Covid rules will be detrimental to their businesses.
On Wednesday, Chief medical officer Dr Paul Kelly told Today that the new recommendations asking workers to stay away from the city are designed to help businesses with their 'continuity plans'.
However, that view, from a man said to be on $400,000 a year, has been labelled as out of touch by struggling business owners
“In terms of the work from home, there are two elements, one is slowing the spread and the second is actually helping businesses with their business continuity,” he said.
“A lot of people are going to get sick with these new variants so we're talking to businesses about keeping their absentee rates down.”
Café owners of Black Velvet Coffee in Exhibition St, Darren and Jackie Silverman have said their business was “just hanging in there at this point”.
“It's just getting quieter and quieter on the street,” Ms Silverman said.
Many CBD businesses that were formerly thriving before the pandemic started are now struggling to recover from Covid lockdowns as more office workers are choosing to stay away from the CBD and work in the safety of their homes yet again.
The renewed recommendations to work from home could see their already decreased patron numbers drop even further.
Case numbers are currently rivalling January's outbreak, with Australia's total active cases hitting 347,000 on Tuesday with 5,200 patients receiving treatment in hospital.
Irit Jackson, 21st July 2022
