Pub closes for two weeks after C-19 test

A pub in Hough ton has closed for two weeks after a customer tested positive for COVID-19.

The Free Gardeners on Front Street has confirmed it closed on Thursday, and will remain shut for 14 days.

Pub boss Ray Minto said that a customer who visited the venue on Sunday, August 30, tested positive for coronavirus in the days after their visit.

The customer is said to have recentlyreturned from holiday.

The pub – which is only open Thursday to Sunday – says it was then contacted the following day by the customer who said test and trace told him to go for a test.

On Thursday, September 3, the pub was informed that the customer had tested positive for COVID-19.

The pub – which had been closed since the Sunday the customer had been in – will now remain closed while a deep clean is carried out.

Manager Mr Minto, who has run the pub for 10 years, says he has also been tested and is waiting on the results. The closure will allow for the deep clean and for him to isolate while he waits for results. Mr Minto, 44, said: “We have shut down for a deep clean after a customer who had been in on Sunday evening tested positive for COVID-19.

"We found out afterwards that he had come off holiday and then the customer contacted us to say that test and trace had been in touch and that he had to go for a test. He found out that he had tested positive on Thursday and since then we have remained closed.”

Penshaw Catholic Social Club is also said to have made the decision to close over the weekend after a visitor tested positive for COVID-19.