The compulsory seven-day isolation period for close contacts is causing staff shortages and supply problems for airlines, hospitality venues and other businesses.Australia is among the few developed nations with highly vaccinated populations still persisting with the measure.The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Business NSW, are demanding changes so that household contacts instead do daily rapid antigen tests before going out in public or to work. If they test negative and are feeling well, they should be allowed to attend work as normal, rather than stay at home for seven days.VCCI chief executive Paul Guerra said availability of staff continued to be a major issue for businesses.“The current isolation requirements are making it difficult for them to provide service for customers and maximise their business opportunities,” he said.“We are seeing other parts of the world moving ahead with revised requirements, and we can use that experience to our advantage.“We need to release the handbrake and enable businesses to operate at the maximum capacity possible and lead our economic recovery.”Business NSW chief executive Daniel Hunter said NSW and Victoria had led the way for Australia with high vaccination rates, and had shown a capacity to live and work with Covid-19.“NSW and Victoria are Australia’s biggest economies, and the current isolation rules are providing a barrier to businesses as healthy people are forced to isolate unnecessarily,” he said.“With NSW (and Victorian) airport workers currently having an exemption to the household contact rules, there is inconsistency and unfairness.“This needs to be fixed so all businesses can have fair access to workers in the current tight labour market, and be open for business.”Melbourne restaurant owner Chris Lucas said: “We need to move on in the post-Covid era, and to do so we need to remove all of the rules and the mandates to allow business to get on with the job of rebuilding.“If we don’t do so, we face a future where many small businesses fall over because they’re just making ends meet, if they haven’t collapsed already.”Premier Daniel Andrews hinted last week that vaccine mandates could be scrapped in a matter of weeks once the peak of the Omicron variant had passed.“Things like the vaccinated economy, masks, all sorts of different things will be looked at closely by the public health team, by the Health Minister,” Mr Andrews said.
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