A film lab owner on the Gold Coast says small businesses are "falling through the cracks", with the company forced to close when its only staff are in isolation.
When Morgan Wagstaff's business partner, Blake Pace, tested positive to COVID-19 last week, the pair had no option but to temporarily shut up shop.
"Blake is in hospital and now I'm isolating in home quarantine," Ms Wagstaff said.
"We are the only two staff members, which means our business has to close.
"This would normally be a very busy time of year for us, [making] anywhere up to $20,000."
On top of the financial strain, Ms Wagstaff was worried about being unable to deliver for her customers.
No financial support
Ms Wagstaff said she was shocked at the lack of financial support available for businesses in that position.
"Your overheads don't stop," she said.
"We don't have a roster of staff that can take over and run things while we're away."
Crowdfunding to pay the rent
Lazarus Lab is not the only small business affected. Mr Pace visited a coffee shop in Palm Beach, not knowing he was infectious.
Vegepatch Studios is in the same situation. Its only three staff members are isolating for two weeks, after they were deemed close contacts.
"We pretty much made all those calls to see if we could get some sort of relief to compensate for being out of business for that long and pretty much the answer was no, there's nothing."
Now the business, which is co-owned by Ms Bowes and Jordan Galinie, is relying on crowdfunding support to make it through the period.
"It makes us both feel sick to our stomachs to even have to ask people," Ms Bowes said.
"Thank God we have such a beautiful community around us."
Change in rules
Both businesses also miss out on the changes to quarantine rules, which become less stringent for Queenslanders from January 1 — close contacts will only be required to isolate for seven days, rather than 14.
Ms Bowes said knowing they were only a few weeks from having potentially halved their quarantine time was even more of a "kick in the guts".
Minister for Employment and Small Business Di Farmer said the state government's aim was to "keep businesses open and Queenslanders in jobs through this next phase of the pandemic".
"Opening to the fully vaccinated only from Friday also makes those businesses less likely to have cases," Ms Farmer said.
