‘Drive them up here!’: The help isolated Shepparton residents desperately need

With about a third of the town in isolation after a spate of COVID-19 cases, many residents in Shepparton are still struggling to get access to food and essentials.

Independent MP for the Shepparton District, Suzanna Sheed, says some help has started to arrive but “there’s a lot that needs to be done”.

“There’s critical sort of logistics problems,” she said.

Ms Sheed says getting supplies delivered to local residents is proving difficult.

“One place told me they had 40 of their drivers in isolation who would (usually) be delivering that all around the local towns,” she told Neil Mitchell.

There are also problems keeping supermarkets stocked and staffed.

Ms Sheed says, at one local supermarket, only 16 of the store’s 100 employees were able to work on one day, with all others in quarantine.

She’s calling on the major supermarkets to run home deliveries in the Shepparton area from Melbourne, or another part of the state.

“Take over all our online orders for the next few days and drive them up here! That’s what we need!,” she said.

Press PLAY below to hear what Shepparton urgently needs

A Shepparton woman in isolation, Linda Moreland, says even quarantined residents who have loved ones who can do their shopping for them have been left without essentials.

“I’ve had to actually send my elderly, vulnerable parents out to do some shopping, but that has ground to a halt now too because the supermarket shelves are empty,” she said.

“All the workers in the supermarkets are actually in isolation as well so there’s no restocking of the shelves.”

Press PLAY below to hear Linda Moreland’s account of the situation in Shepparton