Residents in the village of Nimbin were in a state of high alert this week when they discovered that a Covid positive man had ties to the town.

Alarm bells were raised when Nimbin Pharmacy posted on Facebook that staff had been informed by Lismore Hospital they were “at high risk of exposure” to the Sydney man at the centre of the current lockdown.

While the pharmacy had not actually been visited by the man, the staff were considered close contacts. This resulted in the pharmacy closing on Tuesday while staff were tested for Covid. Fortunately, the results came back negative.

So, when health authorities finally released a list of venues of concern that the man had visited (in Byron and Bangalow), Lismore locals were left wondering why there was no mention of Nimbin.

State MP Janelle Saffin said she had been “deluged” with concerned messages from fearful locals who had been waiting for a list of potential Covid exposure sites in Nimbin.

Ms Saffin said locals’ fears were further heightened when a Nimbin real estate agency posted on Facebook that it was closed for deep cleaning.

“People sent me messages asking ‘what does this mean?’ Ms Saffin said.

Casual contacts

The man was reported to have left Sydney’s lockdown to come to the Byron and Lismore Local Government Areas to look at real estate. Contact tracing was delayed when he was allegedly uncooperative in revealing where he had visited, as he had not used mandatory check ins at venues.

“I understand the man did not visit the Nimbin venues, but the pharmacy staff were considered ‘casual contacts’ due to his associations,” Ms Saffin said.

The pharmacy posted on Facebook “as we service people most at risk from this virus, we made the decision to act fast and get tested so we could be back at work ASAP”.

On social media, one Nimbin local posted that the Nimbin Hills Real Estate Agency showed the man a property in the area while he was here.

Ms Saffin posted into a Nimbin community social media group “To our Nimbin community I understand your concern, but am assured that NSW Health has assessed the risk well and would advise if there was an exposure site in town. No exposure site listing is good news. Testing is available in town, as it is in many places across our area, please take advantage of it”.

Clear communication needed

Ms Saffin said the real issue is the lack of clear and timely messages from NSW Health to the local community.

“Even if the issue is complex, we need detailed, effective communication in a way we can understand it - and that was missing in this situation,” she said.

“NSW Health have done a good job in tracing, but what we need is a better way to communicate the complexities of the situation to a unique community.

“People in Nimbin look after each other in times of difficulties - look at how Nimbin dealt with the 2019 bushfires.”

“I’ve been asking for weeks now, how come people are allowed out of Sydney? It’s something that Mayors in regional areas have recently called for too.

“I understand that policing a ‘ring of steel’ around Sydney is difficult, but we want it. We need to do the best we can, while knowing we can’t have police on every corner."

The Lismore App contacted the Northern NSW Local Health District for comment, but had not received any at the time of publication.