However that is not the case and Matt is optimistic that if he, his colleagues and the community continue to do the right thing, we will all arrive at the other end of the pandemic safe and sound.
“I don't really have any fears about coming to work and interacting with people,” Matt said.
“We have to be there. We have a job to do. And we're doing everything we can to keep ourselves and our customers safe.
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“Plus we're in Benalla and there's been no known cases here since April.
“The only thing that has been slightly concerning is that sometimes we'll see a Melbourne address.
“And you think ‘what are you doing here?’, but so long as we all keep doing the right things I have no big concerns.”
As with many businesses in Victoria, moving to stage three restrictions, whilst annoying, is something that Amcal has experience in.
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“The last time we put some procedures in place like washing hands every hour, cleaning every surface every hour, and having hand sanitiser at the front of the pharmacy,” Matt said.
“But we've gone a bit further this time and now we've got the plastic guards on the counter, and all staff wear facemasks and gloves.
“We have a maximum amount of people we allow in the shop at any time as well.
“We haven't been encouraging people to stay in the shop while they wait for a prescription either.
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“We strongly encourage people to wait in open air spaces and we have a tickets system in place.
“On the ticket it will say if they need to wait out the front, or the back, and we can bring the prescription out to them when it is ready.
“And that means that customers who want to buy stock can actually do that without too may people being in the shop - but it's a tricky balance.”
Matt said he was happy with the restrictions in place and was confident that they would help Victoria bring the pandemic under control.
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“I think the masks will work. We know COVID-19 is spread through saliva droplets and masks reduce that.
“There's been a lot of transmission through the workplace so having to wear masks at work will have an effect.”
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