"It’s time to move forward and get healthy people back to work.”
That's the word from National Retail Association CEO Dominique Lamb, who has welcomed the latest easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
The Queensland Government has changed close contact isolation rules, following a similar move by New South Wales and Victoria last week.
Close contacts will not have to undertake seven days isolation provided they avoid sensitive settings (aged care, hospitals etc), wear masks in indoor settings outside of the home and undertake RAT tests during what would have been their isolation period.
NRA CEO Dominique Lamb said these measures will be essential to retail businesses.
“Isolation rules have been critical to reduce Covid infections, but now we are one of the most vaccinated countries in the world. Close contacts who are vaccinated and present a negative test result should be able to continue to work, or we will continually have large numbers of people out of the workforce.
"Labour shortages have been incredibly frustrating for small businesses, as it seems the past two years of mitigating the risks has come at the detriment of the retail and hospitality workforce. Many members have lost massive chunks of revenue, have had to alter their operating hours and some close altogether as their employees have been unable to work under these restrictions.
"The announcement is a great step towards the new normal for Queensland, soon we’ll be able to get more people back to work following negative test results. Just as the decision was made to open our borders and scrap vaccine mandates, it’s pleasing to see the strength of our leadership has taken another leap of faith.
"It’s time to move forward and get healthy people back to work.”