No extra business support needed to weather Omicron in ACT: Andrew Barr

While businesses have reported significant downturns in trade after Christmas, as Canberrans chose to stay home amid a rapid escalation in coronavirus infections, November was the best-performing month for retail turnover in the territory's history.

Retail turnover in the ACT was $615.9 million in November, data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday showed.

But the strong-performing month, which recorded turnover almost $100 million higher than the same period two years ago before the pandemic began, came after sharp downturns during the ACT's three-month lockdown.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the government needed to take a longer view than one day or one week in deciding whether businesses needed extra financial assistance.

"If people's expectations are that the highest ever month of retail trade can be replicated every month, that's obviously not realistic," he said.

Mr Barr said the government would continue its existing programs of business support, but there was presently no need for new measures.

"It is acknowledged that January will not be as strong as December and November, but certainly November was the strongest trading month ever. We are coming off a very, very high base."

Business groups in the ACT this week called for more support to see them through the acute strain of the Omicron wave of COVID-19 in the territory.

A mobility report prepared by Google showed retail and recreation activity in the ACT was down 16 per cent this week on a pre-pandemic baseline.

Public transport use was down 62 per cent on the pre-pandemic baseline, and workplace activity was down 44 per cent, the report, which uses aggregated mobile phone location data, said.

Activity in residential environments was up 17 per cent and supermarkets and pharmacies experienced a spike of 12 per cent on baseline activity levels, which is based on a snapshot of movement in January and February 2020.

Mr Barr, speaking to the Sunday Canberra Times, acknowledged the impact of short-term workforce shortages on businesses, which he said should be alleviated in some places by changed rules to allow COVID contacts back to work if they test negative.

"If you take an economy wide perspective on this, there are some employers who are screaming out for staff. There's not as if there's a shortage of jobs in the economy at the moment. There's more jobs than there are people available to work," he said.

"I don't think the federal government, for example, is going to be paying people not to work unless they've got COVID, because the work is needed elsewhere in the economy."

But Mr Barr also noted the ACT government had seen only small numbers of applications for its small-business hardship scheme, which remained open

The scheme provides up to $10,000 for small businesses in the ACT to cover electricity, gas and rates bills, and commercial vehicle registration, if the business had a revenue decline of more than 30 per cent in the lockdown period.

Mr Barr also pointed to fee waivers and reductions for food registration costs and liquor licences as existing programs to support ACT business operators.

Another state government has moved to provide financial assistance as a result of the Omicron wave of COVID-19.

The Tasmanian government on Friday announced a package of support for businesses, affected by loss of staff due to COVID-19 or significant pandemic induced downturns in trade since the state reopened its borders on December 15.

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Mr Barr said he was beginning to feel optimistic about the Omicron wave subsiding in the ACT, but it was still too early to call an end to the pandemic.

Modelling prepared by Canberra Health Services has predicted the peak of the ACT's Omicron wave could come as early as next week.

"Look at it the other way, rather than taking the glass half full, go to the more pessimistic view. What we haven't seen in the last seven days is our case numbers go from the 1000 mark to 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000," he said.

"We've not seen exponential increase in the last seven days. That's clear from testing numbers, from positive cases and from hospital presentation.

"Across multiple data sources, what we haven't seen is a further exponential increase. That lends itself to the conclusion that, based on the last week, that if the next week follows a similar trend, we may well have peaked.

"But I guess we'll know for sure in seven days or so."

The ACT reported 1320 cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, including 629 PCR test-confirmed cases and 691 positive rapid antigen tests.

There were 30 people in Canberra hospitals receiving treatment for coronavirus, including three people receiving ventilation support.

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