Moorong Veterinary Clinic co-owner Rose McKean had more than half of her staff in isolation in one week, leaving her with only three vets and four nurses to operate the business.

"We had 22 staff last week that had to isolate for the whole week, we had only three vets and four nurses who were able to work throughout the whole week," she said.

"We had to reschedule all of our routine appointments and postpone people and only see emergencies that needed to be seen on the day."

Since then there have been developments in the rules which allow workers of essential services who become close contacts of a COVID-19 case to return to work without isolation upon a negative Rapid Antigen Test (RAT).

The changes, which apply to veterinarians, have been well-received by Ms McKean.

"Now, if we do have to, we can just test everyone and continue working, but the challenge with that though is sourcing RATs," she said.

The fast-selling tests have been hard to source for everyone since they hit the shelves at supermarkets and pharmacies.

"We have about 20 to 23 people in the building every day, so if we have to a test every day for a week then where do we get our tests from?" Ms McKean said.

"We need a hundred-odd test a week and currently, in stock, we have about 45 because we used them all last week.

"It's quite a challenge.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"The exemption is great in theory because it means if there is a low risk and we can keep working in a COVID-safe. However, one of the requirements to do that is to do a test every day and sourcing the tests is really tricky."

Ms McKean said she placed an order 10 days ago through a pharmacy, just as anyone else would, and they are yet to receive them, which goes to show how hard it is for everybody to get the tests.

"I think all businesses, whether it's for routine stuff, whether it's hospitality, every one is doing their best in a very challenging and very dynamic situation," she said.

"It's hard to make forward plans at the moment and I guess anyone who uses any service, I think, I hope everyone is just a bit kind and flexible.

"I have to say all of our clients have been so understanding and lovely to our staff when we have had to really stuff them around when we've had to reschedule them."

It is a similar story for Southcity Pharmacy Wagga which called for customer patience as it was left short staff due to the mandatory isolation requirements.

Businesses that do not apply to the exemption have been looking for other solutions to get them through the trying time.

The Gardens Wagga closed its online shop as a result of its staff shortages, with one staff member going as far as to return early from their holidays to help.

In a post to Facebook, Ella Bache Wagga asked clients to be understanding during the "extremely difficult" time as appointments had to be rescheduled to work around staff shortages.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: