How will you know if your favorite restaurant or store has a COVID-19 outbreak? You might not
As COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket in California, rumors are starting to circulate on social media about which businesses have been hit with outbreaks.
Customers are wondering if the stores and restaurants they normally visit are safe.
Beyond the normal concerns about sanitizing and mask wearing, consumers are starting to wonder if employees or customers have tested positive for coronavirus. Statements like “I heard that restaurant had three employees test positive” are increasingly popping up on Facebook and other social media.
So how can you know if your favorite, restaurant, bar or store has had employees or customers test positive?
You might not be able to.
There is no central database available to the public or the media to look up which businesses have had positive cases.
Contact tracing is the most likely way a person will find out if someone they’ve been in close contact with has tested positive. That’s the process where county employees work with infected patients to contact the people they may have infected and urge them to get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines close contact as being closer than 6 feet with someone for more than 15 minutes.
You’ll get a phone call if you’re identified as one of them.
But since many customers don’t spend that much time that close to workers at a store or restaurant, they might not be contacted if one or several of them test positive.
Positive cases and closures
Readers learned about the positive case of a worker at Pismo’s Coastal Grill in Fresno because the owner confirmed it with The Bee.
Dutch Bros. coffee has also been open with the public about employees testing positive at locations in northeast Fresno and in Merced.
The company shared details about what shifts the employees worked and when he or she tested positive, saying the health and well-being of their customers and employees is a top priority.
But that openness is unusual.
Throughout June, Bee reporters contacted more than half a dozen locally-owned and chain restaurants, big-box stores and smaller retailers in Fresno, Clovis and the central San Joaquin Valley about suspected cases among employees. Some had closed their restaurants or stores to the public temporarily.
None responded to say whether they had positive cases.
The Fresno County Department of Public Health also declined to share any information about stores or restaurants with positive cases among employees, citing health privacy laws.
But won’t a store a restaurant close if it has employees test positive?
Not necessarily.
The California Restaurant Association recommends a restaurant close for 14 days after an employee tests positive and hire outside professionals to deep clean the business. It also recommends restaurants ask employees who have been exposed to COVID-19 to self quarantine for at least 14 days, though it is not required.
The county health department does not require shutdowns.
“At this point in time we don’t close down facilities, nor do we advise facilities they need to close. We work with them to be sure they’ve isolated the (initial) case and identified potential exposed staff,” said Steven Rhodes, manager of the environmental health division of the Fresno County Department of Public Health, in a June 23 news conference.
Some businesses have corporate policies that mandate two-week closures, he noted.
Instead of making cases at restaurants and stores public, the county focuses on people who have tested positive and tracking down their close contacts. About half the staff of the environmental health department is devoted to contact tracing and medical investigation.
The health department also follows up on tips about potential spread at workplaces, noted Dr. Rais Vohra, the county’s interim health officer.
Contact tracing
Although they are not required to, some restaurants keep records in case they need to do contact tracing when an employee or customer tests positive.
The ones operating by reservation only, like Vino Grille & Spirits in Fresno, hang on to the names, emails and phone numbers of the customers, also noting which table they sat at and who their server was.
Trelio Food & Wine, the high-end restaurant in Old Town Clovis, also hangs onto records from its reservation system and customers who email or call in take-out orders. The restaurant also makes note of whether customers are wearing masks when they come in or walk to the bathroom.
Many restaurants also ask standard questions like if you’ve had symptoms or have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive.
But plenty of restaurants don’t do contact tracing. And not every restaurant or bar is following the guidelines like social distancing laid out by the state, noted Van Fleet, who is also president of the Fresno chapter of the California Restaurant Association.
He asks his employees not to frequent those places in their time off.
If a bar or restaurant is following the guidelines – like spacing tables more than 6 feet apart and making masks mandatory – there will be no close contact and minimal risk of catching COVID-19, Vorha noted.
“Whenever all those precautions are put into place, even if you do have a COVID(-19) patient who patronized that bar, then the rest of the people around them are protected through masks or spacing,” he said. “That’s really a caveat to the customers as well. If you’re not seeing that in place, then you’re putting yourself in an atmosphere of risk.”
How to stay safe
With so many different ways of handling of handling things, it’s ultimately up to customers to keep themselves safe.
Here’s a few ways to do that:
1. Follow the recommendations of health experts. Wear a mask as you’re entering and leaving a restaurant, and while walking to the restroom. You can take it off at your table.
2. Wash your hands. Stay 6 feet apart from others. Don’t dine with people outside your household. Go to the restaurants that do contract tracing.
3. Opt for outdoor activities, including dining, instead of indoors. Takeout is safer than in-restaurant dining.
“Go to the restaurants that are following all the procedures,” Van Fleet said. “If you walk in a bar and nobody is social distancing, walk out.”
Remember that coronavirus spreads mainly through the inhalation of respiratory droplets while in close contact with others, according to the CDC.
COVID-19 can survive on surfaces touched by customers, but it is not the main way the virus spreads. No cases of coronavirus spreading through touching takeout containers or bags have been identified, the agency said.
And there is no evidence the virus is spread through eating food, it said.
“I know that’s a lot of pressure when you’re going out to have a good time, but that’s the reality of the pandemic and it’s something that everyone needs to be mindful of whenever we’re going out and enjoying the social activities that we enjoy,” Vohra said.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 10:58 AM.
