Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Kirby's Pub Co-Owner Cassie Harny, whose venue is a close contact site for the current Covid cluster

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Katie spoke with Kirby's Pub Co-Owner Cassie Harny, whose venue is a close contact site for the current Covid cluster · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is just after ten twenty and we know that
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Kirby's Pub in Catherine has been deemed a close contact
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: site over two separate days, both over a period of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: several hours, no doubt having quite the impact on them
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and a number of staff, I would imagine, and joining
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: me on the line to tell us a little bit
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: more about the situation from their perspective. Cassie Harney, who
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is the part owner and also the licensee of Kirby's Pub,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Cassie.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you not too bad?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: How are things going for you? Guys at this point?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Pretty stressed and concerned at this point, just three quarters
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: of the staff in fourteen days quarantine and most of
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: them having problems trying to test done at the moment.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: So three quarters of your staff are in quarantine right now.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're already running on a pretty tight crew anyway
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: with the work of shortages. But obviously being a Friday,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: it was all basically all hands on deck on that
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Friday of the exposure day, so they all had to
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: go into quarantine straight away.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: And Cassie, when you say in quarantine, are they home
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: quarantine or have they had to be have they had
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: to be brought to Howard Springs. What's the go for them?
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Home quarantine for most of them? Though, we just got
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: told this morning one of our workers was actually in
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: share accommodation and they were informed they couldn't stay there,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: and they decided to try and quarantine with one of
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: our other close contact staff who have an apartment by themselves,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and then they were told they couldn't stay there either.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So I think that person was told to present to
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Howard Springs, but obviously doesn't have transport to get there,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: So it's currently an a motel or waiting to hear
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: back from the CDC about where they can quarantine right.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Now, Cassie, when you say three quarters of the staff,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: how many are we talking?
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: It was about nine of them all together, I think
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: two management staff. That leaves us with about four that
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: we can still run our bottle shop with.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now, what's the situation been like for you guys?
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: You know, when were you notified really that you were
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a close contact site?
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: We won't notified of that until after the press conference.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I think it was to start to five pm. I
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: got a call from the CDC to say that we
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: basically were a close contact site and we had to
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: head back into work and get all the information together
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: for them, and they.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Required and in terms of that case that had obviously
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: come in spent a bit of time there, you know,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: obviously having having a drink as you do at the pub.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: How's that sort of like, do you have any idea,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you know, how many people have come into contact with
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: this person or anything at this point in time.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: From what I understand, I still don't think they've established
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: exactly what time they were in here. We've provided all
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: the camera footage for them to go through that, but
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I was still getting a request out of this morning
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: for the me and your entry registers which were sent
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: through to them on the very same day. So I
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: think there is a level of concern from us that
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: they don't even actually understand who was in here yet
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: other than our staff, which we've provided their details, so
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: they know for a fact that they were here. But yeah, yeah, look,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I don't think they have an exact time period of
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: when they were here, So it's a quite quite a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: wide net for anybody that knows that they were here
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: between the you know, the ten and six on the
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Wednesday and the twelve and four thirty on the Friday.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Hopefully all those people are isolating now until we get
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: more specific information.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: And I know that last week when we were in
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: a similar situation up here in Darwin, obviously there'd been
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: a criticism from the Chief Minister of the Nunama Tavern
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: about the check ins and you know, whether enough people
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: had checked in on one of the dates when a
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: COVID positive person had gone in for you guys, has
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: has everyone been checking in?
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, we have no concern with that. We've always
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: been really strict on it. Obviously we're dealing with a
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: predominantly indigenous clientele and you know, a lot of these people,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: to be honest with you, don't have phones or physical addresses.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: So you know, we've always we have security police that door.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Everybody has to write into our manual entry register. Not
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: many people use the COVID app because they don't have
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: the smartphone capabilities. So yeah, they will literally have a
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: list of every single person that's coming to the venue.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: It's just whether or not they'll be able to trace them.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: You know, some of them have their address literally as
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: long grass all the communities as they're from. They don't
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: have a physical address, so Yeah.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: It's certainly going to be some a lot of work
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I would suspect for the health authorities trying to do
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: all of that. Cassie, from your perspective, I know that
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: you said around nine staff obviously in home quarantine, some
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: of them still waiting for tests.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Did you say, yeah, so they all booked their tests
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: pretty much showed away. One of our guys went half
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: an hour early to join the queue yesterday and still
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: waited for another four hours before he got through the queue.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Another two of our staff were in a vehicle. They
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: waited for two and a half hours for their appointment
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: and got turned away. There's four of our staff that
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: don't actually have any transport. We were informed when I'm
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: allowed to transport them to these tests, So the CDC
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: organized transport for them, but no one ever came to
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: collect them. They then had phone calls to tell them
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: they had to a walk to the walk in one,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: which goes against everything they said because they said, don't
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: go out into the community, stay in your house unless
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: you're going to get the test, and you can only
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: go in the transport that we've looked for you. So yeah,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: it's just very confusing for him at this point as
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: to how they're going to get tested and when they're
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: going to get tested.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Wow, I mean that sounds that sounds like quite a
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: concern at this point for catty concern.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: If there's one hundred and sixty four well, what they say,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty four close contacts would not be
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: a priority to get those hundred and sixty four tested
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: first and then the casual contacts after that. But now
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: that all of these casual contact sites have been least
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: obviously the community is really concerned. They want to do
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: their part, they want to go and get these tests done.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: But I just don't think that there's a capability to
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: get all these people tested.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Cassie, how are you feeling like, you know, as a
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: resident and business owner of Catherine at this point, how
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: worried are you?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Guys? Oh? Look, I think this is the Tivioty Iceberg.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: My husband and I part owners together in dual licensees,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: and look, we're just so concerned. We're so concerned to
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: the community, We're so concerned for our staff. I think
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: this lockdown is going to go for a lot longer,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: just because it is going to be quite hard to
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: trade than it already is so active in the community,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: and if it is the delta strain, it's going to
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: spread quickly. So look, yeah, we're we're very concerned. We're
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: very concernsed to the community and for our staff.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: We are you are any of your staff, you know,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: are feeling symptoms or anything at this point in time?
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Are they all well?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: They are all well? A couple jokes this morning, they're
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: a little lonely, but yeah, you know, we're very we're
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: very team here. We treat each other as family, we're
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: very close, we're very social. So you know, them having
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: to be in this isolation is going to affect them,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: I think for the next foorting days.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And you must be worried as well about your patrons.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I know that you'd said, you know a lot of
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: them obviously travel in from different communities and from different
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: parts of the territory. You must be feeling worried about
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: them at this point.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: I am worried about them. And you know where if
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: they had gone back to community already, it's not unusual
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: for them to be in town for a couple of
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: days and then go back to community. So you know,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: do they even know that they were potentially a close
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: contact on those days. Are they already back and active
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: in the communities. There's a whole lot of questions and
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: a whole lot of concerns around it.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Well, Cassie, please keep us up to date with how
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: it all goes. It's a worry the fact that your
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: staff obviously some of them have not been tested at
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: this point and would be deemed close contacts. So then
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: as you touched on all of those other close contacts,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: needing to make sure that they get tested. How is
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: it going from your perspective? And you know, I know
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: that you're probably only able to see it from the
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: outside in at this point in terms of that testing.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: But is there a lot of people turning up to
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: get tested.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of people turning up to get tested,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: and you know they're worried. You can't blame them for it,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: but they probably don't necessarily have an appointment. So the
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: people that have booked appointments that are close contacts, and
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: you know, the quicker we can get them tested, the
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: better they're waiting in line and being turned away. So
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I just I think we need a lot more boots
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: on the ground in terms of resources for testing. We
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: need to try and pump through this as quickly as
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: we can. You know, the Chief Minister was saying that,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: you know, we're prepared for this type of thing. You know,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: what I've seen in caps in the last couple of
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: days doesn't look like we're prepared.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Are you guys feeling like you're you know, you're being
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: looked after or are you're feeling like you're left behind
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: a bit.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: In terms of getting our staff tested and taking care
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: of because they are close contacts. I feel like they're
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: getting left behind a little bit, which is a warrior
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: for Well, we're deeply concerned with them. We want to
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: be able to put their mind at ease and you know,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: hopefully get those negative test results. Mark. I think it
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: is really lucky that, you know, the mask mandate was
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: still in place. We work in retailing hospitality, so we're
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: we're very well trained about about hygiene and you know,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: not touching our faces or anything after we've been handling money,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: after we've been touching anything. Basically you're washing hands first.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: But you know, in terms of hygiene practices, I would
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: be very surprised if any one of them were infected,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: but it would still be good if these close contacts
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: can get these tests done quickly and put their mind
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: to ease.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: And are you guys all double vaxed?
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Most of the staff are double vaxed or you know,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: we've all received our first dose obviously as a probably
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: about fifty percent double vax and fifty percent first dose.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Well, Cassie, please keep us up to date and let
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: us know how it all goes. I really appreciate your
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: time this morning. At this point as well, I'm assuming
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that the pub is closed until that lockdown lifts. Aside
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: from like you said there, you're obviously trying to stuff.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Are the takeaway side of things?
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they close and you know halfway through a
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: deep clean. We've got Slacanca Stemics coming in this afternoon
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: to do their missing spray all through the place as well.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: But I just you know, even if I don't believe
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: that the lockdown will end in the next fourteen days,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: but even if it did, we wouldn't be able to
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: reopen the venue with no staff.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Well, Cassie, all the best to you guys, all the
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: best to your stuff. Please please keep in contact though,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: let us know how things are tracking over the coming days.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: We'll do Thank you, Thank you,