FROM today (July 9), the Market shop and cafe in Jindabyne has been ordered to close for a week after repeatedly breaching covid safety measures. 

NSW police visited The Market four times between June 29 and July 2 and identified breaches, including: staff and patrons not wearing face coverings; no signage relating to wearing face coverings or patron capacity; no QR code check-in outside or within the premises; and failure to produce a COVID-19 sign in register.

The cafe owners, a 32-year-old woman and 33-year-old man, were arrested and charged on June 30 with not wearing fitted face coverings in a retail business.

They were granted conditional bail, however, when officers revisited the cafe a few days later, they found no face coverings being worn by members of the public, no QR code and no sign-in sheet.

The owners have been fined $2000 and are due to appear in Cooma Local Court in August.

SafeWork NSW’s director of work health and safety metro compliance, Dimitri Argeres, said it’s disappointing that the seriousness of the issue isn’t getting through to some businesses.

“A digital check-in process allows for effective contact tracing and is vital in the event a positive case visits the location,” Mr Argeres said.

“This venue has consistently failed to maintain covid safety standards and has not complied with its own covid safety plan or the public health orders designed to help reduce community transmission.

“After finding more breaches on the fourth visit, it was clear that the ongoing operation of the premises presented a clear and significant risk to public health and needed to be sent a strong message.

“Businesses need to be doing the right thing to keep their customers and the community safe. We can’t have some businesses complying and others doing the opposite, putting everyone at risk. Any business that repeatedly fails to comply with the Public Health Orders faces temporary closure.”