Restaurant possible COVID-19 exposure site
Governor’s Pub and Eatery closing its doors temporarily
SYDNEY — A popular downtown Sydney restaurant has voluntarily closed its doors for a few days after making the province’s list of locations of where there may have been potential exposure to COVID-19.
The owner Governor’s Pub and Eatery said that while there has yet to be any evidence of community spread as a result of the possible exposure, he is impressed by the contact tracing system that led to public health officials becoming aware that coronavirus exposure may have taken place.
Ardon Mofford said the establishment was notified late Saturday afternoon that a person who later tested positive for COVID-19 had been in the bar area of the restaurant after 8 p.m. on the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 17. He heard back from the Nova Scotia health officials later that evening and after learning more details he opted to voluntarily close the Esplanade eatery for three days to coincide with the 14-day period since the possible transmission.
“With this, you take the hit — I feel we took the right action,” said Mofford, who plans to reopen the waterfront-facing establishment on Wednesday.
“I feel it was necessary to err on the side of caution for my staff and the community and that hopefully everything comes back by Dec. 1 with no issues and we can go back to operating at 50 per cent capacity. At this time none of the staff are showing any symptoms. And, as far as I can tell, the one bartender on duty at the time may have been the only one to have come in contact with the individual.
“Hopefully our customers still have faith in us, we didn’t do anything wrong and we followed all the protocols that were put in place to protect our community. I think, hope and pray that it did work and that there is no community spread now or in the future.”
Mofford maintains that Governor’s has been strictly adhering to public health protocols throughout the pandemic and said the alarm appears to indicate that the province’s contact tracing system is working well.
“I am truly impressed with the way they traced it. We have been very careful at work, every day we all check for symptoms and we’ve never had a situation. No staff members have any signs and we’re already more than 11 days past the date of possible exposure. At this time, I am quite comfortable that nobody is sick, but if anyone of the six staff members working that day tests positive then we will test our entire staff,” he said.
“I think the message is for people not to panic and to realize this is only a potential. If an employee comes back positive then it’s obviously community spread, but at this time there is no community spread in Cape Breton, no positive cases in this zone. So, this guy may not have been positive when he was in Sydney because he tested positive well after being here.”
Mofford was equally quick to praise the restaurant business for its vigilance in compiling databases of the names and contact information of patrons who are in an establishment at any one time.
“Restaurants are amazing places right now because we’ve had these protocols in place. We’ve tracked our customers, we log everybody into a system where we have their email and phone contacts, so now we have a database of every single person so I could tell you everybody who was in the restaurant on that day and if there is a positive test we can literally reach out to every one of our customers and let them know to go get tested,” he said.
“You don’t get that in the big box stores or grocery stores, you don’t get it anywhere else but in the restaurants and it’s great information for public health to have because they can track people very quickly.”
Meanwhile, the province reported 10 new positive tests, all in the central zone, on Sunday. That brings the Nova Scotiawide total to 125 active cases.
No new cases have been lately in Cape Breton, part of the eastern zone, but the province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang, continues to encourage residents to follow the ongoing public health protocols.
“No matter where you live in Nova Scotia, it is important to follow all public health measures," said Strang.
"While the majority of the cases are in the Central Zone, COVID-19 can easily find its way into other parts of the province. We must all remain vigilant and continue working to limit spread within, and beyond, Halifax."
Since Oct. 1, Nova Scotia has had 44,909 negative test results, 200 positive COVID-19 cases and no deaths. No one is presently in hospital with the coronavirus.