ByZach LoganandWTOC Staff|June 23, 2020 at 6:16 AM EDT - Updated June 23 at 6:54 AM
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC) - After opening their doors recently, several Savannah restaurants are temporarily closed due to exposure to COVID-19.
Other businesses saw an earlier exposure and are now reopening for a second time, including popular spots on Tybee Island.
The co-owner of Chamacos Tacos & Surf on Tybee Island admits that he was nervous about what business would look like after he had to close his restaurant due to one of his employees testing positive for COVID-19. But he wanted to be transparent with his customers.
Earlier this month, Co-owner Frank Bucci says one of his employees started to show symptoms, so they asked the employee to take some time off. After a week away, the employee returned but still noticed that she had a sinus infection. The employee got tested and found that she was positive for COVID-19.
Bucci says after that, all employees went to get tested and the rest of the staff came back negative. So, they took a week off to deep clean the entire restaurant.
The restaurant opened again last Friday, and Bucci says he couldn’t believe the support.
“When I posted the bad news on Facebook, we almost had 18,000 views on that post. And when I posted the good news, we had 2,000 views. So that’s a microcosm of today’s society, right? So, we were concerned people wouldn’t come back. But luckily for us, on Friday, we were slammed and on Saturday we were slammed,” said Bucci.
The staff even took the time to repaint the patio tables outside.
As for the employee who tested positive, she is still out of work. Bucci says after her 14-day quarantine period, she will be asked to stay home for a third week just to make sure her symptoms are gone. Bucci says they will pay her during her downtime.
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