A South Coast cafe has been preparing for the worst since opening the doors in the middle of the pandemic.
The Cooked Goose at Hyams Beach became one of the latest COVID-19 exposure sites and was forced to shut down overnight, after a Melbourne man visited the venue while on holiday with his family last month.
Owner Madison Behringer expected the business to remain closed for almost a week. The positive ordered takeaway and didn't go inside, but it will be deep cleaned as a precaution.
In the meantime, 14 staff members have been tested and are now in quarantine after the positive case attended the beachside venue on May 23 between 10am and 12pm.
"As soon as the alert came out ... we had to establish who was working on that day and who worked since with them since," Ms Behringer said.
The popular tourist destination welcomes scores of Canberrans most weekends. Ms Behringer said the vast majority of customers she spoke to last weekend were ACT residents.
Shoalhaven Council Mayor Amanda Findley said because the Hyams Beach population was so low, most of the people in that area at the time of the positive case would have been tourists.
"That's where it's really important for tourists to sign in in order to get contact tracing done," she said.
Residents with mild symptoms have been urged to get tested while those that attended exposure sites in Jervis Bay, Vincentia, Goulburn and Hyams Beach at the specified times must quarantine.
Some waited more than an hour to queue for a new pop-up drive through testing clinic in Huskisson.
"We did respond really well last time when we had those two Covid scares in and around Huskisson," Councillor Findley said.
Ms Behringer and her husband, who also own the Cooked Goose in Wollongong, have been preparing for the financial impacts of a forced closure, knowing no-one was immune from a COVID-19 outbreak.
"There's that financial impact of not having the trade, we probably won't be open this weekend as well. That's worrying but with everything that's gone on with Covid we have been planning and we had to financially bolster the business," she said.
The wait is now on for the test results.
"Everyone's been really supportive, Hyams Beach is a tight-knit community," Ms Behringer said.
"Customers have reached out some have called, we've had customers messaging us on Facebook and Instagram sending support."
