Soller had announced on Facebook Saturday that he had closed the Dayton location temporarily because an employee tested positive for COVID-19. The employee was experiencing minimal symptoms and is expected to make a full recovery, Soller said in the post. A second Old Scratch location on Miamisburg-Centerville Road in Washington Twp. remained open. Old Scratch limits exposure between its Centerville and Dayton operations, Soller said.
“What our customers should know is that this was strictly a closure about the protection of our employees. The Montgomery County Health Department identifies people at risk of ‘close contact’ exposure as those ‘within six feet, for 15 minutes or longer of the infected person.‘ Based on our limited-service model, dining at Old Scratch Pizza is low-risk, and no customer would ever come close to reaching this threshold” of contact of 15 minutes or more with an employee, Soller said.
In addition, both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have advised that there is no evidence of food, food containers, or food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19, Soller said.
“As restaurateurs, we take our responsibility as social gathering places seriously,” the Old Scratch founder said. “Our quick responses, transparency, and general good citizenship result in the closures of restaurants when a single employee has a case contracted in their personal lives, while virtually every other type of retail, customer-facing operation continues operating without interruption or injury to reputation.
“All restaurant operators are trying their best to navigate this complex environment,” Soller said. “We thank the community for continuing to support this fragile industry.”
The scenario Old Scratch just navigated is becoming increasingly common across the Dayton area and beyond. Old Scratch’s announcement came the day after three other local restaurants — Wheat Penny Oven and Bar in Dayton, Mamma DiSalvo’s Italian Ristorante in Kettering and The Clubhouse Grill restaurant at The Golf Club at Yankee Trace in Centerville — reopened Friday, Aug. 24, after temporary shutdowns due to an employee’s positive COVID-19 test.
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