Butchers to re-open, regional COVID-19 update

Rose City Premium Meats plans to re-open this Saturday 4 April. Pictured are co-owners Peter Wright (left) and Paul Carey. Photo - The Wife Creative.

By Jeremy Sollars

If you thought it was time for some good news on the coronavirus front, one local business which has well and truly borne the brunt in the last few weeks is Rose City Premium Meats in Warwick’s Rose City Shoppingworld.

All things going to plan they intend to re-open this Saturday 4 April.

Co-owner Peter Wright tested positive for COVID-19 resulting in the closure of the butchery on Monday 23 March. His last contact with staff and his last day at work was the previous Thursday 19 March. Peter says he is now symptom-free, recovered and hoping to stay that way.

As of today – Thursday 2 April – Peter has been the only case of COVID-19 in the Southern Downs Regional Council area. The latest advice from Queensland Health is that the Darling Downs Health Region has 36 confirmed cases, as follows –

• Toowoomba – 29

• Oakey – 4

• Kingaroy – 1

• Miles – 1

Obviously this is a changing situation and further Queensland Health updates will be posted online as they become available.

From a Rose City Premium Meats perspective neither co-owner Paul Carey nor any of the staff of the business – who all went into home quarantine – have displayed any symptoms, and not least Peter’s wife Michelle, who perhaps by some small miracle did not contract the virus from her better half.

Peter Wright and Paul Carey have spent most of this week trying to understand how to access government financial support on offer for their business but are confident of re-opening this Saturday – with all the appropriate social distancing and other hygiene controls in place.

And to reiterate – COVID-19 cannot be transmitted by food products, but of course social distancing and proper hand hygiene remain essential.

“I’d just really like to thank everybody who has sent messages of support both to me personally and to the business via social media and phone calls and elsewhere in the last couple of weeks,” Peter said.

“We’re confident we will re-open, obviously there will be some changes in how we interact with customers and those social distancing requirements and hand-washing and so on remain critical.

“I also want to thank Queensland Health – they have been brilliant to work with, they’ve given us incredible support and treated us with compassion during what’s been a very difficult time.

“I cannot thank our staff enough – they’ve complied with the isolation requirements and it’s just so pleasing to report none of them have shown any symptoms at any time.

“We’re now focussing on getting everything ship-shape to re-open.

“And we also want to emphasise we’ll be ramping up our home deliveries as another option for our customers – all of whom we thank from the bottom of our hearts for their support and their encouragement.”

DARLING DOWNS HEALTH LATEST…

“The community can rest assured that contact tracing is underway, which means we are directly contacting people considered to be at risk,” their latest statement says.

“Please be kind and caring to the people in our communities.

“Data on current cases does not change how people should be protecting themselves and their loved ones.

“Stay 1.5 metres apart, avoid touching, shaking hands, or hugging, wash your hands regularly, and stay home as much as possible.

“If we need to let you know about the movements of a confirmed case, we will post it on our page and ti will also be updated on the contact tracing site here bit.ly/qhcontacttracing

For more information visit – www.health.qld.gov.au/coronavirus

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