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Venues have been urged to comply with COVID-19 restrictions in New South Wales or face a hefty fine as the state's health authorities prepare to crack down on breaches this weekend.
Ten more venues have been singled out by the Department of Customer Service today for breaches including not having a safety plan, non-compliant record keeping, and a lack of social distancing.
Liquor & Gaming NSW, SafeWork NSW and NSW Fair Trading have visited 410 licenced venues since the new restrictions were introduced, issuing $50,000 in penalty infringement notices for breaches of COVID safety.
Executive director of compliance, Peter Dunphy, has labelled non-compliant behaviour as reckless with the potential to put livelihoods, jobs, and community health at risk.
"It beggars belief that anyone would want to eat, drink and mingle, shoulder to shoulder with others during a pandemic," Mr Dunphy said.
"Pubs, clubs, bars, casinos, cafes and restaurants are high risk for COVID transmission. They are subject to public health order conditions specifically designed to keep them open and keep our communities safe.
"We all need to play it safer - businesses as well as customers."
These ten pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants will be fined $5,000 each:
- Mapo Galbi Korean BBQ - Gosford
- Natapit Samintkaew - Central Coast
- Thai Thyme - Erina
- Hero Sushi - Erina
- Heart 2 Heart - Cumberland
- Master Hot Pot - Cumberland
- Tamworth Service Club - Tamworth
- Greyhound Social Club Ltd - Yagoona
- Hurlstone Park Hotel - Hurlstone Park
- Kingswood Hotel Kingswood
The NSW Government also announced yesterday that in addition to hospitality premises, gyms will be subject to new public health orders from Saturday 1 August at 12:01am.
"You never know who is filming or taking photos or when police and inspectors might visit your business," Mr Dunphy said.
The warning comes as clusters of COVID-19 infection continue to grow, tracing back to a number of venues in Sydney.
As of today, there are now 89 cases associated with Thai Rock Wetherill Park, 57 cases associated with the Crossroads Hotel cluster, and eight cases associated with Batemans Bay Soldiers Club.
A cluster from The Apollo restaurant in Potts Point has also continued to grow today with four new cases associated with the venue in NSW and two in Queensland.
NSW Health has advised anyone who attended Frank's Pizza Bar Restaurant in Camperdown on 27 July from 6pm to 8pm to monitor for symptoms after a case attended the establishment.
Updated at 4:01pm AEST on 30 July 2020.
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