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Speaker 1: It is just after ten twenty and we know that

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Speaker 1: Kirby's Pub in Catherine has been deemed a close contact

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Speaker 1: site over two separate days, both over a period of

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Speaker 1: several hours, no doubt having quite the impact on them

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Speaker 1: and a number of staff, I would imagine, and joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line to tell us a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about the situation from their perspective. Cassie Harney, who

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Speaker 1: is the part owner and also the licensee of Kirby's Pub,

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Cassie.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you not too bad?

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Speaker 1: How are things going for you? Guys at this point?

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Speaker 2: Pretty stressed and concerned at this point, just three quarters

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Speaker 2: of the staff in fourteen days quarantine and most of

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Speaker 2: them having problems trying to test done at the moment.

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Speaker 1: So three quarters of your staff are in quarantine right now.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're already running on a pretty tight crew anyway

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Speaker 2: with the work of shortages. But obviously being a Friday,

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Speaker 2: it was all basically all hands on deck on that

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Speaker 2: Friday of the exposure day, so they all had to

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Speaker 2: go into quarantine straight away.

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Speaker 1: And Cassie, when you say in quarantine, are they home

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Speaker 1: quarantine or have they had to be have they had

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Speaker 1: to be brought to Howard Springs. What's the go for them?

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Speaker 2: Home quarantine for most of them? Though, we just got

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Speaker 2: told this morning one of our workers was actually in

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Speaker 2: share accommodation and they were informed they couldn't stay there,

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Speaker 2: and they decided to try and quarantine with one of

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Speaker 2: our other close contact staff who have an apartment by themselves,

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Speaker 2: and then they were told they couldn't stay there either.

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Speaker 2: So I think that person was told to present to

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Speaker 2: Howard Springs, but obviously doesn't have transport to get there,

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Speaker 2: So it's currently an a motel or waiting to hear

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Speaker 2: back from the CDC about where they can quarantine right.

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Speaker 1: Now, Cassie, when you say three quarters of the staff,

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Speaker 1: how many are we talking?

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Speaker 2: It was about nine of them all together, I think

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Speaker 2: two management staff. That leaves us with about four that

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Speaker 2: we can still run our bottle shop with.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, now, what's the situation been like for you guys?

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Speaker 1: You know, when were you notified really that you were

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Speaker 1: a close contact site?

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Speaker 2: We won't notified of that until after the press conference.

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Speaker 2: I think it was to start to five pm. I

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Speaker 2: got a call from the CDC to say that we

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Speaker 2: basically were a close contact site and we had to

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Speaker 2: head back into work and get all the information together

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Speaker 2: for them, and they.

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Speaker 1: Required and in terms of that case that had obviously

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Speaker 1: come in spent a bit of time there, you know,

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Speaker 1: obviously having having a drink as you do at the pub.

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Speaker 1: How's that sort of like, do you have any idea,

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Speaker 1: you know, how many people have come into contact with

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Speaker 1: this person or anything at this point in time.

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Speaker 2: From what I understand, I still don't think they've established

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Speaker 2: exactly what time they were in here. We've provided all

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Speaker 2: the camera footage for them to go through that, but

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Speaker 2: I was still getting a request out of this morning

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Speaker 2: for the me and your entry registers which were sent

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Speaker 2: through to them on the very same day. So I

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Speaker 2: think there is a level of concern from us that

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Speaker 2: they don't even actually understand who was in here yet

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Speaker 2: other than our staff, which we've provided their details, so

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Speaker 2: they know for a fact that they were here. But yeah, yeah, look,

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Speaker 2: I don't think they have an exact time period of

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Speaker 2: when they were here, So it's a quite quite a

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Speaker 2: wide net for anybody that knows that they were here

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Speaker 2: between the you know, the ten and six on the

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Speaker 2: Wednesday and the twelve and four thirty on the Friday.

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Speaker 2: Hopefully all those people are isolating now until we get

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Speaker 2: more specific information.

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Speaker 1: And I know that last week when we were in

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Speaker 1: a similar situation up here in Darwin, obviously there'd been

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Speaker 1: a criticism from the Chief Minister of the Nunama Tavern

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Speaker 1: about the check ins and you know, whether enough people

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Speaker 1: had checked in on one of the dates when a

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Speaker 1: COVID positive person had gone in for you guys, has

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Speaker 1: has everyone been checking in?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, we have no concern with that. We've always

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Speaker 2: been really strict on it. Obviously we're dealing with a

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Speaker 2: predominantly indigenous clientele and you know, a lot of these people,

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Speaker 2: to be honest with you, don't have phones or physical addresses.

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Speaker 2: So you know, we've always we have security police that door.

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Speaker 2: Everybody has to write into our manual entry register. Not

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Speaker 2: many people use the COVID app because they don't have

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Speaker 2: the smartphone capabilities. So yeah, they will literally have a

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Speaker 2: list of every single person that's coming to the venue.

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Speaker 2: It's just whether or not they'll be able to trace them.

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Speaker 2: You know, some of them have their address literally as

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Speaker 2: long grass all the communities as they're from. They don't

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Speaker 2: have a physical address, so Yeah.

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Speaker 1: It's certainly going to be some a lot of work

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Speaker 1: I would suspect for the health authorities trying to do

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Speaker 1: all of that. Cassie, from your perspective, I know that

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Speaker 1: you said around nine staff obviously in home quarantine, some

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Speaker 1: of them still waiting for tests.

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Speaker 2: Did you say, yeah, so they all booked their tests

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Speaker 2: pretty much showed away. One of our guys went half

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Speaker 2: an hour early to join the queue yesterday and still

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Speaker 2: waited for another four hours before he got through the queue.

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Speaker 2: Another two of our staff were in a vehicle. They

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Speaker 2: waited for two and a half hours for their appointment

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Speaker 2: and got turned away. There's four of our staff that

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Speaker 2: don't actually have any transport. We were informed when I'm

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Speaker 2: allowed to transport them to these tests, So the CDC

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Speaker 2: organized transport for them, but no one ever came to

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Speaker 2: collect them. They then had phone calls to tell them

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Speaker 2: they had to a walk to the walk in one,

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Speaker 2: which goes against everything they said because they said, don't

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Speaker 2: go out into the community, stay in your house unless

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Speaker 2: you're going to get the test, and you can only

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Speaker 2: go in the transport that we've looked for you. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's just very confusing for him at this point as

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Speaker 2: to how they're going to get tested and when they're

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Speaker 2: going to get tested.

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Speaker 1: Wow, I mean that sounds that sounds like quite a

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Speaker 1: concern at this point for catty concern.

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Speaker 2: If there's one hundred and sixty four well, what they say,

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Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty four close contacts would not be

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Speaker 2: a priority to get those hundred and sixty four tested

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Speaker 2: first and then the casual contacts after that. But now

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Speaker 2: that all of these casual contact sites have been least

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Speaker 2: obviously the community is really concerned. They want to do

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Speaker 2: their part, they want to go and get these tests done.

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Speaker 2: But I just don't think that there's a capability to

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Speaker 2: get all these people tested.

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Speaker 1: Cassie, how are you feeling like, you know, as a

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Speaker 1: resident and business owner of Catherine at this point, how

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Speaker 1: worried are you?

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Speaker 2: Guys? Oh? Look, I think this is the Tivioty Iceberg.

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Speaker 2: My husband and I part owners together in dual licensees,

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Speaker 2: and look, we're just so concerned. We're so concerned to

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Speaker 2: the community, We're so concerned for our staff. I think

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Speaker 2: this lockdown is going to go for a lot longer,

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Speaker 2: just because it is going to be quite hard to

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Speaker 2: trade than it already is so active in the community,

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Speaker 2: and if it is the delta strain, it's going to

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Speaker 2: spread quickly. So look, yeah, we're we're very concerned. We're

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Speaker 2: very concernsed to the community and for our staff.

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Speaker 1: We are you are any of your staff, you know,

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Speaker 1: are feeling symptoms or anything at this point in time?

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Speaker 1: Are they all well?

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Speaker 2: They are all well? A couple jokes this morning, they're

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Speaker 2: a little lonely, but yeah, you know, we're very we're

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Speaker 2: very team here. We treat each other as family, we're

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Speaker 2: very close, we're very social. So you know, them having

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Speaker 2: to be in this isolation is going to affect them,

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Speaker 2: I think for the next foorting days.

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Speaker 1: And you must be worried as well about your patrons.

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Speaker 1: I know that you'd said, you know a lot of

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Speaker 1: them obviously travel in from different communities and from different

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Speaker 1: parts of the territory. You must be feeling worried about

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Speaker 1: them at this point.

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Speaker 2: I am worried about them. And you know where if

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Speaker 2: they had gone back to community already, it's not unusual

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Speaker 2: for them to be in town for a couple of

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Speaker 2: days and then go back to community. So you know,

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Speaker 2: do they even know that they were potentially a close

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Speaker 2: contact on those days. Are they already back and active

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Speaker 2: in the communities. There's a whole lot of questions and

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Speaker 2: a whole lot of concerns around it.

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Speaker 1: Well, Cassie, please keep us up to date with how

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Speaker 1: it all goes. It's a worry the fact that your

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Speaker 1: staff obviously some of them have not been tested at

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Speaker 1: this point and would be deemed close contacts. So then

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Speaker 1: as you touched on all of those other close contacts,

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Speaker 1: needing to make sure that they get tested. How is

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Speaker 1: it going from your perspective? And you know, I know

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Speaker 1: that you're probably only able to see it from the

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Speaker 1: outside in at this point in terms of that testing.

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Speaker 1: But is there a lot of people turning up to

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Speaker 1: get tested.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of people turning up to get tested,

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Speaker 2: and you know they're worried. You can't blame them for it,

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Speaker 2: but they probably don't necessarily have an appointment. So the

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Speaker 2: people that have booked appointments that are close contacts, and

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Speaker 2: you know, the quicker we can get them tested, the

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Speaker 2: better they're waiting in line and being turned away. So

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Speaker 2: I just I think we need a lot more boots

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Speaker 2: on the ground in terms of resources for testing. We

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Speaker 2: need to try and pump through this as quickly as

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Speaker 2: we can. You know, the Chief Minister was saying that,

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Speaker 2: you know, we're prepared for this type of thing. You know,

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Speaker 2: what I've seen in caps in the last couple of

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Speaker 2: days doesn't look like we're prepared.

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Speaker 1: Are you guys feeling like you're you know, you're being

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Speaker 1: looked after or are you're feeling like you're left behind

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Speaker 1: a bit.

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Speaker 2: In terms of getting our staff tested and taking care

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Speaker 2: of because they are close contacts. I feel like they're

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Speaker 2: getting left behind a little bit, which is a warrior

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Speaker 2: for Well, we're deeply concerned with them. We want to

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Speaker 2: be able to put their mind at ease and you know,

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Speaker 2: hopefully get those negative test results. Mark. I think it

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Speaker 2: is really lucky that, you know, the mask mandate was

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Speaker 2: still in place. We work in retailing hospitality, so we're

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Speaker 2: we're very well trained about about hygiene and you know,

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Speaker 2: not touching our faces or anything after we've been handling money,

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Speaker 2: after we've been touching anything. Basically you're washing hands first.

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Speaker 2: But you know, in terms of hygiene practices, I would

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Speaker 2: be very surprised if any one of them were infected,

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Speaker 2: but it would still be good if these close contacts

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Speaker 2: can get these tests done quickly and put their mind

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Speaker 2: to ease.

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Speaker 1: And are you guys all double vaxed?

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Speaker 2: Most of the staff are double vaxed or you know,

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Speaker 2: we've all received our first dose obviously as a probably

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Speaker 2: about fifty percent double vax and fifty percent first dose.

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Speaker 1: Well, Cassie, please keep us up to date and let

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Speaker 1: us know how it all goes. I really appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time this morning. At this point as well, I'm assuming

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Speaker 1: that the pub is closed until that lockdown lifts. Aside

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Speaker 1: from like you said there, you're obviously trying to stuff.

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Speaker 1: Are the takeaway side of things?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they close and you know halfway through a

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Speaker 2: deep clean. We've got Slacanca Stemics coming in this afternoon

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Speaker 2: to do their missing spray all through the place as well.

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Speaker 2: But I just you know, even if I don't believe

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Speaker 2: that the lockdown will end in the next fourteen days,

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Speaker 2: but even if it did, we wouldn't be able to

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Speaker 2: reopen the venue with no staff.

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Speaker 1: Well, Cassie, all the best to you guys, all the

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Speaker 1: best to your stuff. Please please keep in contact though,

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Speaker 1: let us know how things are tracking over the coming days.

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Speaker 2: We'll do Thank you, Thank you,