As the COVID-19 situation ramps up down south, and Sydney blooms with hot spots, residents and business owners in the Southern Highlands are getting anxious.
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Weekend swarms of visitors are putting pressure on shops and footpaths, and social distancing can be "very challenging", according to Gumnut Patisserie operations manager Michael Glennon.
The always-popular bakery has queues out the door and down the path each day, especially on weekends, and managing the waiting customers is tricky.
"In Bowral, we only let two customers in at a time, in Mittagong we say 10 because the shop is bigger," he said.
"Sometimes we have to ask people to wait outside.
"In Bowral we get staff to move up and down the line making sure people are social distancing.
"We're just trying to protect our staff, our business and our customers.
"I would love to see much more awareness out there."
Mr Glennon said that the three Gumnut Patisserie venues had tried to be on the front foot from day one, reacting ahead of government advice to keep people safe by removing tables and putting out signage.
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"We've done our best to be in front of whatever restrictions the government makes," he said.
But then, when restrictions were loosened in the school holidays, business "doubled overnight".
"People from outside the area took it to the extreme - no one could travel overseas or interstate so they just came down to Highlands," he said.
With up to 70 staff facing thousands of customers across the three stores each day, there is good reason to be worried about transmission.
But Mr Glennon said many customers, except for some older ones, don't wear masks, and some aren't very careful with social distancing.
"Many are coming from areas with a lot more people so they are more used to crowding," he said.
"We're a tourist area - we don't want to alienate people.
"We won't tell them to wear masks until the government says, but we want them to be mindful of the people around them."
When masks became mandatory last week in Victoria, the Southern Highland News asked our readers if they thought we were doing enough in regional NSW to keep the virus out.
The answers were a mixed bag, some supporting masks for Sydney-siders, others saying they should stay away from the region, while still others thought we all should start wearing masks.
"If they really must come, yes and yes!" said Tina Cotton, to the question of whether city visitors should mask up.
"But I would probably rather them stay in Sydney for the moment though, hey!"
Marty Gardner, speaking as one voice among many, said, "How about we all wear masks rather than it be us versus visitors?"
Nathan Moore went a step further, saying hospitality and retail staff should all wear masks too.
"We should all mask up and, in my honest opinion, people who are a single point of contact for hundreds or thousands of people, like hospitality or retail workers, should absolutely be required to wear them, as they could potentially become the source of an outbreak," he said.
But Lulu Bourke argued that masks don't necessarily solve the problem.
"The virus is so tiny it passes through a mask," she wrote. "They're not helping in Victoria."
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