Portrait of brothers, Azizullah and Munawar Shah, at their small business, Kebab al-Hajat, in Merrylands.
The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus has spilt over from the original Bondi outbreak, into south-west Sydney and now into parts of western Sydney, including to Merrylands. The NSW Government has today extended the hard lockdown orders, currently in place in the south-west, to the Cumberland and Blacktown LGAs in the west. The Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, also pronounced the pandemic as a ‘national emergency’.
Overall, there were a record 136 COVID-19 cases recorded to 8pm yesterday. 62 of those cases were in south-west Sydney, with 29 cases detected in western Sydney, including in Merrylands. Notably, there were also 28 cases in the more affluent eastern suburbs - nearly as many as in the west - where there has been no talk of extending the harder lockdown measures.
Azizullah and Munawar Shah came to Australia from Afghanistan 12 years ago as refugees and set up their Kebab shop near Merrylands train station. Despite the economic impact of COVID hitting their business hard, the two brothers are still working and serving what locals claim is the best Afghan food in the west.
Part of an ongoing series, ‘COVID-19 Diaries’.
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