Not every business discloses cases
Some staying silent when employee tests positive for coronavirus
When an employee at New Smyrna Beach’s Third Wave Cafe & Wine Bar tested positive for coronavirus, the business not only temporarily shut its doors but took to social media to report the news to its customers.
The restaurant on the popular tourist destination of Flagler Avenue then disclosed the last day the person was at work, June 17, and that the staffer had worked morning and evening shifts in the week leading up to that date. The cafe has since opened back up with more safety measures in place.
Owner Kathy Lundberg wanted the restaurant to avoid secrecy.
“In that secrecy, we’re perpetuating the spread,” Lundberg said. “There should be no shame in this.”
But not every business has been as forthcoming when an employee tests positive for the highly contagious virus. Some will reveal cases if asked, but others stay silent. And there is no state requirement that they make it public.
The Florida Department of Health tracks the virus through test results sent to it by labs. When
someone tests positive, the department conducts contact tracing to find out where that person might have been and who might have been exposed.
That can include contacting the restaurants and bars that those people might have visited.
Asked at a news conference about what businesses are required to disclose when an employee tests positive, Dr. Raul Pino, the state health department’s officer in Orange County, said he didn’t think require “is the word.”
“People have closed voluntarily,” Pino said.
Publix publicly confirms cases, Walmart does not
Publix, which has more than 1,240 stores, has been confirming cases to news media outlets when asked about specific locations where employees have tested positive for the virus.
The Lakeland-based grocery store chain has confirmed 30 stores with cases to the Orlando Sentinel in Orange, Seminole, Lake, Osceola and Volusia counties. It has about 125 stores in those counties.
The strategy is unique for a major grocery store chain, even though it might not reveal every case.
“The testing and reporting of cases by health departments varies widely state-by-state,” spokeswoman Maria Brous said in an emailed statement. “As a result, we cannot fully and accurately report cases in real time, but we have been, and will continue to be, keenly focused on intensive, ongoing protective measures in all our stores.”
Walmart and WinnDixie have not confirmed suspected cases at specific stores to the Orlando Sentinel. In Orlando, Walmart temporarily shut down its store near John Young Parkway and Sand Lake Road for a cleaning but did not say if the move was because an employee or customer had the virus.
A Walmart spokesman said in an email it is leaving individual confirmation up to local health departments “out of respect and privacy for our associates’ personal health.”
“Also, the health department is the local authority on if and when such information should be reported for the safety of the community,” the email said.
Walmart has taken safety measures such as temperature checks for workers and a mandate that employees wear masks. Publix also requires workers to wear masks.
“In the case we do have a confirmed case at any of our stores, we are working with those associates and offering guidance and time needed to receive medical care,” the Walmart spokesman said. “We have processes in place to inform associates.”
The virus presents businesses with a tough choice because they have a commitment to employees not to give out too much health information, one expert said.
“There’s no one right answer in this regard,” said Mark Bush, a program coordinator for health services administration at the University of Central Florida. “I think it’s really a decision each business has to make.”
But he said he didn’t think there was a privacy issue with saying someone has tested positive as long as there aren’t too many specifics released that could identify that employee. The Department of Health does not release to the public the names of people or businesses it traces.
Bush added that if he found out he was at a restaurant when an infected employee had been working, he wouldn’t want to then go see his 90-year-old mother.
“What you need to do as a citizen is protect yourself and protect the community,” Bush said.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates grocery stores, said in an email that it does not regulate employee testing or reporting of that information. It deferred to the Department of Health.
‘It’s just everywhere’
Pharmacy, a restaurant in Doctor Phillips off Sand Lake Road, closed down in June after an employee tested positive for the virus. The restaurant, which initially reopened on May 14 and had required employees to wear masks, shared the information on Facebook.
“I think that through transparency we will debunk any kind of shameful connotation about this thing,” said Loren Falsone, one of the restaurant’s owners. “It’s apparent that it’s just everywhere.”
Pharmacy’s staff has been getting tested for the virus, but some have yet to receive their results. Others tested negative for the virus but were then exposed to family members or friends that have the virus, Falsone said, and there have also been other positive results among the crew.
The test results have confirmed to Falsone that closing was the right move.
“I want customers to know, ‘Hey, if you’ve been to our restaurant in the past week or two, please go get yourself tested,’ ” Falsone said.
At Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, employees are informed if there is a positive diagnosis on staff, spokesman Rich Jeffers said. The company has more than 1,800 restaurants between its Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze and Eddie V’s brands.
“Just as we would with any public health issue, if the health department felt we needed to make a public disclosure, we would work with them to do so,” Jeffers said in an email.
The entire restaurant is disinfected if a staffer tests positive, Jeffers said, and such employees are not allowed to come back to work until they have a written medical release to return or meet requirements based on federal guidelines.
Jeffers did not say if any specific restaurants have had employees test positive.
Another state regulator is working to ensure restaurants follow coronavirus guidelines such as the 50% occupancy rule.
From June 5 to June 30, Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation received 759 coronavirus-related complaints, with 179 of those from Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Volusia, Brevard, Indian River and St. Lucie counties, according to a department spokesman.
The department’s inspectors have been working “overtime seven days a week” to get businesses to comply, a spokesman said. They have suspended the alcohol licenses of the Knights Pub near UCF and Bajas Beachclub in Tallahassee.
Drinking alcohol at bars was suspended by the department because so many bars and vendors throughout the state were not following reopening guidelines that it made enforcement efforts “impractical and insufficient.”
When asked about if there were requirements that businesses release information about staff testing positive and if DBPR was involved in that, the agency said the Department of Health is responsible for contact tracing and provided links to mandatory measures and guidelines it had published for restaurants.
DBPR, however, is responsible for ensuring restaurants keep out employees who are infected with coronavirus or meet several other conditions such as showing symptoms of a respiratory infection, based on an order from the governor.
Falsone suspects that over time every business will have an employee end up with the virus. She hopes that if the virus is shown to be everywhere, the government might provide more assistance.
“We can’t really survive this thing without more help,” she said.