Kingston restauranteurs working to get COVID-19 tests for staff after public health memo

Many restaurant operators in the Kingston area are figuring out how to get their employees tested after receiving a memo by KFL&A Public Health Wednesday asking all restaurant staff in the region get tested for COVID-19.

Public health told Global News Thursday there have been 15 COVID-19 cases associated with workers at 10 different Kingston fast food locations in the last two weeks.

Thursday, Domino’s Pizza confirmed that two employees at it’s Division Street location said they had tested positive for the virus on Monday. The restaurant was closed for cleaning Monday evening, and reopened Tuesday.

Public health said they had slated COVID-19 testing at the city’s assessment centre for restaurant workers every afternoon until Sunday.

Tommy Hunter, the owner of Tommy’s Restaurant in downtown Kingston, says he’s working out a way to follow public health’s advice and schedule appointments for his 38 employees.

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“It is going to be very difficult to try to get everyone funneled through in the next few days. The Friday slots filled up very quickly so we ended up booking in all our staff on Saturday. Saturday is obviously our busiest day. All of our employees are working,” Hunter said.

Hunter said after his employees get tested, they will be heading back to work. Public health said this will be allowed for all restaurant workers, as long as they are not symptomatic.

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“If a restaurant worker is asymptomatic at time of testing, they are not required to isolate while awaiting results. If the restaurant worker is symptomatic at time of testing, they are required to self-isolate while waiting for results,” the health unit said in an email sent Thursday.

Global News has reached out to Tim Hortons, McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza, who have all had employees test positive in Kingston over the last two weeks, to see if they too will be endeavoring to get their staff tested by Sunday. None have responded in time for publication.

According to public health, despite the uptick in cases in local restaurants, the risk to the public is very low and no customers have been linked to the cases at the recently affected establishments.