Jason Day, co-owner and operating partner of the Elsa’s restaurant at 6204 Wilmington Pike, said the employee was notified that a person she had been in contact with and who had recently returned from Florida tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus. The employee started to notice symptoms while at home on Wednesday evening, June 24, stayed home from work and went to her doctor and was given a test for COVID-19 on Thursday, and was informed Friday that the test was positive, Day said.
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“That is when we started contact-tracing employees who were in close contact with her, and we made contact with the Greene County Public Health to go over our plan of closing for a minimum of two days to have the restaurant cleaned and sanitized with an electrostatic sanitizer, and of quarantining all employees who were in contact with the person who tested positive,” Day said.
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Day said health officials told him he was following the correct protocols. The restaurant shut down Friday and Saturday, and reopened Sunday with dinner-only hours, offering only carryout.
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“After evaluating our staffing levels with the employees in quarantine, we decided it would be best to go back to carryout only, and dinner only, until we could get our staff back to work,” Day said. “The safety of our staff and customers is our primary concern, and that is what we are basing all of our decision-making on.”
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The target date for Elsa’s Corner Cantina to resume resume lunch and dine-in service is July 9, Day said.
The employee is “still not feeling well but better than she was,” Day said Wednesday.
Jeffrey Webb, director of environmental health services for Greene County Public Health, confirmed Wednesday morning that Elsa’s Corner Cantina followed the proper protocol with the deep-cleaning and other actions.
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“The response was pro-active. They contacted us quickly and took the necessary steps,” Webb said.
Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County will be conducting the contact tracing for the restaurant and its customers, Webb said.
The Dayton-based health agency is already performing similar contact tracing for the Roosters restaurant in Miamisburg, after five of that restaurant's employees tested positive for COVID-19.
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