Getting ready for a busy Saturday morning of trade, the last thing a business owner wants is a phone call from Public Health that results in most of their staff going home.
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And in the end, given how far back, how specific and how short the timeframes were, it would have mostly been staff at the retail outlets - rather than previous customers - who were impacted by Saturday morning's sudden announcement.
Yet with Tasmania, like other states, committed to the COVID elimination strategy, this will have to be the reality until the vast majority of people are fully vaccinated.
In the highly unlikely event that the former LGH staff member was infectious in Launceston and elsewhere in Tasmania, the way in which the Delta variant transfers in enclosed areas could have started a NSW-style outbreak, unknowingly spreading over the past two weeks.
But no matter how small the possibility, the past year-and-a-half has shown how that exact eventuality guides the cautious approach from public health authorities, and as a result, governments.
Looking north to NSW shows why such caution still prevails.
On Saturday, 47 people were in hospital with 16 in intensive care, including one teenager, one person in their 20s, one in their 30s, one in their 40s and three in their 50s. The remainder were 60 and above.
Of those, 37 were not fully vaccinated.
As people in at-risk groups are slowly being vaccinated, there will be growing calls to avoid such cautious reactions to the even hint that COVID could, in some way, be spread.
The thinking goes that the young and healthy are highly unlikely to suffer serious complications. But again, in NSW, the risk has proven to be real no matter your age.
Images of over-stretched hospitals throughout the world in 2020 are seared into the memories of Australians. We avoided the worst of that and, hopefully, we're only months away from avoiding it altogether once the vaccine rollout actually kicks into gear.
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Metropolitan hospitals have at least some capacity to absorb a COVID outbreak provided it does not get completely out of control, but Tasmania's hospitals are already stretched.
It might be frustrating seeing shops close suddenly, trade lost and borders shut, but the prevailing view among the public appears to be in favour of this.
COVID elimination has required these sacrifices for the greater good - saving lives.
The light is at the end of the tunnel. This time next year, we can all expect to have every freedom returned - and that includes enjoying a Saturday morning in Launceston without the shop doors suddenly closing.
