Batemans Bay Soldiers Club closes after COVID scare

Batemans Bay Soldiers Club has made the difficult decision to close until Tuesday to allow its staff time to get tested for COVID-19.

The move follows news that a father and son, who were asymptomatic when they visited the Eurobodalla, were at the club between 7 pm and 9:30 pm on Monday, 13 July, and may have been infectious. They returned a positive test after returning to Sydney on Wednesday.

Health workers are also in the process of contact tracing anyone who dined at the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club during that time and a pop-up testing clinic has been set up at Hanging Rock, Batemans Bay, until Tuesday.

Initially the club decided to stay open, based on NSW Health advice that its processes and procedures were robust and risk was low.

However that changed on Friday night, when news of the incident spread.

In a post to social media, the club said it had decided to close until Tuesday.

“This decision has been made in the interest of keeping our community and our staff safe,” the Facebook post said. “Thank you and take care.”

The news was welcomed on social media, with patrons pledging to support the club when it reopens.

“Thank you for putting staff and community safety before profits,” one supporter wrote.

Meanwhile the BIG4 Batemans Bay East Caravan Park, Wharf Rd, North Batemans Bay, has also reached out to patrons after the pair stayed there on Monday and Tuesday last week.

“Our park has had practices and protocols in place since the early beginnings of COVID-19 in case we had an incident such as this,” a spokesperson said.

“The self-contained cabin where our guests stayed has been closed off and will undergo professional deep cleaning in line with our strict COVID-19 cleaning procedures and advice from NSW Health.

“All staff and guests staying in the park at the time are encouraged to be tested for COVID-19.”

A public health spokesperson said others in the community should watch for respiratory symptoms or fever and, if they occur, isolate and get tested for COVID-19 right away.

To ensure people can get tested quickly, Southern NSW Local Health District has arranged a COVID-19 pop-up clinic at the Hanging Rock Oval Car Park (near the function centre) on Beach Road, Batemans Bay. The clinic will be open from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm from Saturday to Monday.

Anyone feeling unwell – even with the mildest of symptoms such as a runny nose or scratchy throat – should self-isolate and seek COVID-19 testing, so cases in the community are identified as quickly as possible.

The need for scheduled appointments across many of the District’s COVID-19 testing sites has been removed.

Callers to the Southern NSW Local Health District 1800 999 880 COVID-19 line will be provided with information on testing eligibility and clinic times and locations.

These sites include Goulburn Base Hospital, Queanbeyan District Hospital, Eurobodalla Health Service (Moruya), South East Regional Hospital, Cooma District Hospital, Jindabyne Clinic and Yass District Hospital.

Also included are the ‘pop-up’ clinics at Malua Bay, Hanging Rock, Merimbula and Crookwell.

A number of smaller COVID-19 testing sites will still be by appointment only (Pambula Hospital, Bombala MPS, Eden, Perisher and Thredbo).

Original Article published by Kim Treasure on About Regional.