Pub director says COVID-19 rule changes would be ‘a real positive’ for hospitality

Senior Victorian government officials have hinted that COVID-19 rules requiring hospitality customers to show their vaccination certificates and the need for close contacts of confirmed cases to isolate for seven days could be dropped as soon as this weekend.

Director of the Rosebud Hotel, Andrew Nikakis, says removing vaccination certificate checks would be “a real positive” for the hospitality industry.

“It’s certainly been an ongoing challenge for us,” he told Ross and Russel.

Mr Nikakis says dropping isolation rules for close contacts would significantly ease staff shortage pressures.

The Rosebud Hotel was forced to reduce trade over the Easter weekend due to staffing problems.

“We didn’t have the numbers that we’d like to have, particularly in the kitchen,” he said.

“I think the seven-day isolation thing, if that gets relaxed or scrapped that’ll be a big help.

“That was really challenging.”

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