Coronavirus Australia: Rashays owner says Sydney, Melbourne lockdown is ...

The owner of popular restaurant chain Rashays has slammed Australia's never-ending coronavirus lockdowns, saying businesses have been blindsided by the latest restrictions - despite governments having 18 months to prepare. 

Long Centrelink queues formed in Sydney on Tuesday as workers applied for relief payments, with nearly 14 million Australians now living under some form of lockdown, prompting radio host Ben Fordham to warn the 'social and economic consequences' were now 'dwarfing' the damage from the virus.

Carrie Bickmore and fellow hosts of The Project also complained that Australia is now in a worse place than when the pandemic first hit 16 months ago, in stark contrast to the rest of the world.

Rashays co-founder Rami Ykmour, who was dramatically arrested in his office while defending staff from police enforcing Covid restrictions earlier this month, told Daily Mail Australia lockdowns were crippling small businesses.

Mr Ykmour called for more transparency regarding a road map out of Covid and more assistance for affected businesses and workers.

But his comments comes as new modelling by health experts warns NSW will likely remain in lockdown until the end of August or even longer.

'We all need to support the Police and the Government in what they are doing during Covid however our leaders need to lead with greater consultation with small business who are the backbone of the community and our country,' he said.

'Lockdown after lockdown is crippling business and has enormous effects on not just the mental health of the workers and mums and dads, but will deliver a knock-on negative effect for our children in the long term.' 

One of the major challenges the restaurateur is facing is that his nationwide business has to abide by different lockdown restrictions in different areas.

Greater Sydney is enduring its fourth week of strict stay-at-home lockdown restrictions to slow the spread of the highly-contagious Indian Delta variant, while South Australia has brought in tough restrictions and Victoria is also in shutdown. 

'We are in three different states, so there are three different rules in place, so it's like we are running three different businesses,' Mr Ykmour told Daily Mail Australia.

'Some allow dine-in others don't, some it's the four persons per sq/m rule, others aren't. So it's a massive challenge.' 

Mr Ykmour said another problem for the crippled hospitality industry is that stay-at-home orders are declared with very little notice for business owners. 

'This pandemic did not start yesterday, there has been 18 months to prepare,' he said. 

'When restrictions are called, we are not able to adjust our menu and we are left with perishable items that have to go in the bin, and obviously staff have their shifts cut.

'The emergency subsidy payments will help, but there are still major challenges.'

Reflecting on this controversial arrest, Mr Ykmour said the ordeal was 'embarrassing' for himself and the business and that he is 100 per cent behind the police and the government.

His comments reflect a wider change in Australians' views towards lockdown as the primary way to handle coronavirus outbreaks. 

The Project hosts on Tuesday's program lamented that Australia is now in a worse position than at the same time last year, while the rest of the world is opening up and learning to live with the virus - albeit it with much higher vaccination rates.

Co-host Carrie Bickmore also weighed in and said it was disheartening the pandemic has had such a lasting impact on the country.

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'If you said this time last year, we'd still be in this situation a year later, I just don't think anyone was imagining it,' she said.

'I'm sure the experts were, but I don't think everyday people were thinking that's how long this was going to go for.' 

His comments come after radio host Ben Fordham joined calls for Australia to learn to live with Covid, with nearly 14 million residents in NSW, Victoria and SA now in lockdown. 

The 2GB broadcaster slammed NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Tuesday morning over her insistence the state would not open up until community transmissions hit zero. 

'We are seeing very little change in the daily case numbers. They want us to focus on the number of people who are infectious while in the community. We're not really making a dent on that number,' Fordham said.

'And yet the government reckons that that number needs to be close to zero before we can open up. Come off it. How're we going to get there?  

'And at what point do we start showing some courage? Right now the social and economic consequences of the lockdowns are dwarfing the damage of the virus.'  

Sydney is enduring its tightest restrictions since the pandemic began in March last year, with even tradies unable to work.

'Why don't we get fair dinkum and work towards the Premier's goal of learning to live with the virus,' Fordham added.

'We have the harshest restrictions of any state since coronavirus arrived. Kids aren't at school, small businesses are on their knees, if you live in Fairfield, Liverpool or Canterbury, you cannot leave the area for work unless you are an authorised worker,' he said.

'And now more than a quarter of a million construction workers and tradies are out of a job. It's never happened anywhere in Australia. They didn't even do it in Victoria, during their darkest days… this cannot go on.'

But new modelling from Melbourne University led by epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely suggests it's likely to take at least five more weeks for Sydney's daily case number to drop below five a day, news.com reported.

This means lockdown could last until at least the end of August. 

'The Delta variant has been a game changer,' Prof Blakely said. 'It is harder to control and eliminate, and makes policies other than hard lockdown very uncertain and hard to predict.' 

He said if NSW had not brought in even harsher lockdown restrictions, it could have taken 27 weeks for infection rates to stabilise.

Melbourne University's modelling also lines up with similar scenarios played out by Burnet Institute and epidemiologist Professor Michael Toole, who estimated that Sydney will not see the

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