Victorian Chamber of Commerce has here put together a COVID-19 (Coronavirus) resources for business here with many useful links for you.
I do not know what to say about it, no matter what you think of the Coronavirus effect, it is clear to our community this is Economic and Social disaster.
If it continues it may grinding much of the country to a halt. Schools are shutting down. The Australian Grand Prix is cancelled, they are talking of closing down part of Australia as they have done in some overseas country e.g. Spain, Italy, South Korea and China where 100 million people are in lockdown. In some countries now save for supermarkets and pharmacies, all malls are closed. Restaurants, public hotel dining, gyms, pools, amusement parks, zoos, bathhouses, beauty and massage salons, event and conference venues, public boats, heritage sites etc. closed too. People in religious activities have to keep at least two meters from one another.
I have clients that have 30% to 40% of their business is Chinese tourists and most of that is gone, and that is hurting. Where is this going to go?
The closest example I can think of is the Spanish flu which my aunty talked a lot about it, it closed down much of Australia for over a year, made sick about 40 per cent of the population and killed around 15,000. Are we looking at something like this?
Several of my clients have received advise sheets that state
- That they have to clean up frequently their public areas, door handles, public bathrooms, etc. with disinfectant.
- Make available antibacterial hand sanitisers.
In theory, it is all good advice. The problem is that try and get antibacterial hand sanitisers now, I went six (6) time to my supermarket, and they had none.
One of my clients reported to me that they rang the government Coronavirus helpline, and the phone rang out.
Another told me that Coronavirus tests in Australia are now only available to high-risk people.
Two pieces of advice, I was told besides the handwashing everyone talks about
1) Give yourself plenty of fresh air, make sure the air in the shop circulates
2) Do not touch your face but without a mask, its almost impossible to do as a study here showed
Where is this leading too?
