Canberran businesses are preparing for the potential risks of the Australian government ending mandatory self-isolation for anyone testing positive to COVID.
On Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced national cabinet decided to end the compulsory five-day quarantine period from October 14.
"We want a policy that promotes resilience and capacity building and reduces reliance on government intervention," Mr Albanese said.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said this was not the end of the pandemic and we would still see "future peaks of the virus".
Matt Webster, manager of Highroad cafe in Dickson, said the changes could potentially put staff and other customers at risk.
He said he hoped people did not come in if they had COVID but nothing was stopping people from endangering others now.
"I'd like to think they wouldn't come in, but I suppose they could, which is the scary part," he said.
The new changes could potentially lead to businesses being more at risk of losing staff.
"Ever since COVID started we've had some really hard weeks and I think if a staff member did get COVID, I'm assuming I'm allowed to, [but] I wouldn't let them work, just to not endanger others."
"It just seems like the government might be doing this for financial concerns, which is understandable, but I think the safety of everyone is a little bit more important," he said.
Peter Arnaudo, owner of bookstore The Book Cow in Kingston said he was not too worried about the ending of compulsory quarantine, largely due to his staff still wearing masks in the store.
"If my staff continue to wear their masks, that reduces the chance of them getting sick. So I think it's really just more of a precautionary approach that everyone's trying to take," he said.
"I don't think it'll be a major impact on our business. It's probably more just about making sure that people do the right thing, because it's not as if we test every person who comes through the door."
Janine Batley, owner of Janine Florist in Civic, was upset about the announcement and said requiring people with COVID to isolate "was the best thing" to stop the flow of the disease.
"I think it's a really sad thing and I know that it takes staff away, but for the sake of other staff, for small businesses, you're more likely to lose man hours, because if one person has it, everyone is going to get it. So it's a really dumb thing to take away that isolation period."
The Business Council of Australia welcomed National Cabinet's decision to remove mandatory isolation rules outside high risk sectors.
Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott said "the emergency phase of this pandemic is over, so we've got to shift gear, move with the rest of the world and manage for the long term".
"This final step to reopening the economy and giving Australians the freedom to make their own decisions again is critical," she said.
Along with the scrapping of self-isolation rules comes the end of pandemic leave payments from the government.
"It was sensible to keep paid pandemic leave provisions in place while mandatory isolation rules were in force, but we can't keep emergency payments in place forever," Ms Westcott said.
Matt Webster said "it's important to take care of your staff when they need it. Obviously, it's not great for business, but staff comes first. So we probably would have to do something in regards to support. But I wouldn't be too worried, but it's not ideal."
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