A pizza shop in Sydney is giving out free slices to people lining up to get tested for Covid-19 across the city.
When Glen Mezei, owner of Site Pizza Bar located in a beachside suburb in Sydney’s east, and fellow staff members delivered 30 fresh pizzas to a local Covid-19 testing site, they showed just what it meant to be a part of the local community.
Mezei cooked up the idea when he saw a long line of people waiting outside a nearby testing location.
“I didn’t think too much, I just saw the people waiting out in the cold and decided to do it, I wasn’t expecting this much attention,” Mezei told Xinhua.
He also made an announcement on his Facebook page “to all that is being patient and are waiting to be tested at Chifley park, we’re on the way to say thank you with some pizza to share”.
“It was very much appreciated both by people waiting and the health workers,” he said.
The act of kindness comes as people are subjected to long wait times across Sydney as the demand for covid testing increases, with active cases in New South Wales growing from 10 to 13 overnight.
With the surge of cases in the community across Sydney’s east, New South Wales Health has been calling on people to get tested.
This week alone testing numbers in Sydney have increased from 25,252 on Monday to 48,402 on Thursday.
New South Wales has recorded 13 cases of Covid-19 community transmission overnight but Premier Gladys Berejiklian has stopped short of sending Sydney into a hard lockdown.
Ms Berejiklian said health officials had found 10 local cases from 44,000 tests in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday night – seven of which had already been announced.
Since that cut-off, she said another 13 cases were found in the community, with eight attending the same party at West Hoxton in Sydney’s far-west.
Health workers have been working around the clock to meet the increased demand and locals have been stuck waiting in testing queues for hours.
In a time of uncertainty and anxiety, the random act of kindness went a long way, shedding a light on the pressure faced by health workers and how showing up to get tested can be an act of compassion.
While the pandemic has put additional strain on Mezei’s business, he has never shied away from giving back where he can.
“If we go under we go under,” he said.