Dubbo businesses battered by the fallout of Sydney's COVID-19 outbreak have been dealt a new blow with a Blayney factory worker a confirmed case, and authorities racing to contain possible spread.
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Strict stay-at-home orders for seven days are in place for the Orange, Blayney and Cabonne councils and anyone who has visited the communities on or after Saturday.
Five exposure sites across Orange had been identified by late Tuesday.
On Tuesday evening Business NSW western NSW regional manager Vicki Seccombe said the new restrictions were a concerning development.
"...there's no hiding that this will be a huge blow for business, big and small, right across the Central West," she said.
"The impact to our business community has already been strongly felt through the recent restrictions and Greater Sydney lockdowns, so this is going to have a devastating impact to our businesses.
The impact to our business community has already been strongly felt through the recent restrictions and Greater Sydney lockdowns, so this is going to have a devastating impact to our businesses.
- Business NSW western NSW regional manager Vicki Seccombe
"We have been surveying our members during these current restrictions and initial results suggested business revenue in the Central West was already down by 43 per cent across a number of sectors, so this will surely spread to more businesses.
"But businesses understand how important it is that we contain this local outbreak and they will be working hard to ensure they comply with the rules."
Dubbo's Kristen Smith had already seen "significant cancellations" at her two accommodation businesses, airbnb Loft 33 in Talbragar Street, and Vineyard Villa at Lazy River Estate in the past four to six weeks as Sydney's COVID outbreak worsened.
We've had a massive downturn in our accommodation, in tourism.
- Loft 33 and Lazy River Estate owner Kristen Smith
"We've had a massive downturn in our accommodation, in tourism," she said.
"Of course everyone else would be experiencing the same thing.
"We had our accommodation booked at probably 85 per cent occupancy rate.
"We're down to probably 5 per cent now."
They had been policing all the bookings to check where guests lived, she said.
She said with COVID now being at Orange it was "a bit scary".
Wednesday morning brought a wave of cancellations.
"As the statistics started to go down in the past 48 hours, the Loft in the centre of town with business travellers started to go up again, but then this morning, I think I had six bookings yesterday and within the last 24 hours to this morning, we've just cancelled, cancelled, cancelled, cancelled," Mrs Smith said.
Trade at her Talbragar Street retail business, The Gift Closet, had been "steady".
We've very lucky, I'm supported by a lot of people in Dubbo.
- The Gift Closet owner Kristen Smith
"We've very lucky, I'm supported by a lot of people in Dubbo," Mrs Smith said.
"We have our quieter days - nothing, I think, to the extent we went through when we shut down completely last year.
"But it's still ticking along... we haven't had to shut the doors, and people are still coming in through the doors and supporting us, so that's been really, really fabulous.
"So we'd like to say a big thank you to Dubbo for that."
Mrs Smith's message to the community was: "Just keep safe, thank you, and continue to support your local small businesses because without them supporting us, we haven't got anything."
"When summertime comes, hopefully we all take off these masks, we can all come out and enjoy a wonderful time and still have these fabulous shops, restaurants and cafes to enjoy," she said.
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