Closer to home: ACT outbreak leaves Bega Valley residents ordered to 'stay-at-home'

Katrina, her husband, and their three children travelled to Canberra over the weekend and stayed overnight in order to access retail stores not available to residents in the Bega Valley.

"We were pretty lucky, we seemed to have missed the hotspot venues by a couple of hours, so we were pretty relieved yesterday when we saw those.

"But then of course the stay-at-home order was issued and that obviously impacts us a little more," she said.

"My husband is a tradie so he works alone which is good, but I work in a customer facing role, and I have elderly and vulnerable people coming in all the time. I also have three kids and I worry about them testing positive."

Katrina said that although she and her husband have received their first vaccinations and feel relatively confident in their health status, they are concerned about the more vulnerable members of their family and community.

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"It's the age old thing of you don't mind so much if you get it, it's passing it on that's a bit of a worry," she said.

Her two school-aged children and youngest child in preschool were all kept home today (Friday, August 13) and the family went to South East Regional Hospital in Bega to get tested.

"The schools have sent out notifications saying there's a stay-at-home order, but students can still go to school, so we've just kept our kids home today just for the sake of one day, we get tested and be in the all clear but it's just better to be safe than sorry I think," she said.

"It's a bit frightening that it's that close to home and judging by the amount of people getting tested, there's a lot of people in the same boat," she said.

Katrina said her family experienced a three-hour wait time and reports from the hospital confirmed there were extended waiting times to get tested.

SERH is now requesting that only those who were close contacts, were at a venue of concern during the hours notified, or have symptoms head there for testing.

The family visited home depot stores in Canberra last weekend, and so will be using their time at home to catch up on some gardening and odd jobs around the house.

"We're really lucky, we've got a big backyard for the kids, so they're outside all day long. I couldn't imagine being in the cities were you don't have that option, it would be just awful, so as far as they're concerned nothing has really changed," Katrina said.