Central Coast Covid crisis sparked by one household at Budgewoi shows the fear and danger around the Delta strain

But I do live in Budgewoi, where five COVID cases were recorded in a single household. Compared to some places in Sydney, and many other places around the world, this is small potatoes.

But this hasn't stopped a lot of people on the Central Coast from feeling a lot of fear and anger.

Central Coast Health announced at 9.30pm last Sunday that a Budgewoi household had recorded a fifth positive case.

Along with the five cases at this residence, there were two other people in the household who had tested negative.

In that same statement, authorities said a person from this household had made 25 visits to 16 shops in five days when they should have been self-isolating.

The places this person went included Coles, First Choice Liquor and Priceline Pharmacy at San Remo, Lake Haven Shopping Centre and Westfield Tuggerah.

They also went to Bunnings and Charmhaven Newsagency.

All of these places were listed as exposure sites. People who had been at these shops at certain times were told to get tested and isolate. Most people assumed the person in question was one of the positive cases from the Budgewoi house, but it was actually one of the negative cases.

Central Coast Health didn't make that clear in its statement. They clearly didn't want to confuse the issue.

Regardless of testing negative for COVID, the person was considered an extremely high risk because transmission of the Delta strain between household members occurs in "almost 100 per cent" of cases, as Premier Gladys Berejiklian has repeatedly said.

So when the person went on all those visits to shops, she could easily have been contagious.

Some may say authorities were being overly cautious, but this Delta strain is not to be messed with. The situation in Sydney and elsewhere has shown that clearly.

Health authorities were probably concerned that if they spelled out that the person who went to the 16 shops was negative, many people wouldn't comprehend the nature of the high risk.

Instead, thousands of people flooded testing sites on Monday, causing massive queues amid widespread fear.

Thankfully there haven't been any more positive cases yet.

Gail Bain, of San Remo, told us she "sat in that queue" at the Doyalson testing site for 6.5 hours on Monday.

She joined the queue at 10.30am and was tested at 5.10pm. She had been at Coles at San Remo at the time the high-risk person was there.

I told Gail that the person who sparked the panic had tested negative, but posed an extremely high risk of transmitting the virus.

Gail agreed there was "still a risk".

"But I don't like the way it was portrayed, that this person was positive," she said.

"I still would have been wary, but probably wouldn't have spent six hours in a queue. I probably would have waited a couple of days."

The couple who own Charmhaven Newsagency - Greg and Christine Smith - felt the same way.

Mrs Smith served the high-risk person at the newsagency, so health authorities advised her to self-isolate for 14 days.

As we reported on Thursday, this had been difficult for the couple.

Mrs Smith had to isolate from her husband within their house. She couldn't help him at the newsagency, which had suffered a 50 per cent fall in trade within a week.

The occupants of the Budgewoi house were all moved to Special Health Accommodation in Sydney to isolate.

I wonder if health authorities think in hindsight that they could have done this to begin with, with so many people in the same house.

They were the only cases of concern on the Central Coast. There had been two people in the same household at The Entrance who had COVID, but that was a few weeks ago. And health authorities did not consider them a risk to the community.

If authorities used the same level of cautiousness they displayed with the exposure sites, they may well have moved the Budgewoi household straight to quarantine.

In fairness, it appears that the people in this house hadn't been completely up front with authorities, with "two newly identified household" members mentioned in Sunday's statement.

Luckily the health authorities caught the situation when they did. They'd obviously been in contact with the household and cottoned on to a big problem.

The scenario that has played out on the Central Coast this week shows how much health authorities rely on COVID-affected people to be honest.

The people, too, would like the authorities to be honest.

COVID rules may be black and white, but humans come in shades of grey as they try to gain various types of advantages.

The final word should go to Christine Smith, of Charmhaven Newsagency, who endured emotional turmoil during the first week of her 14-day isolation.

"You just do the right thing by the law and be sensible," she said.

Damon Cronshaw is a Newcastle Herald journalist and proud Coastie.