Columbia restaurant owner welcomes back employees with a coronavirus test
When Hilarie Leviner arrived Tuesday at the Blue Marlin where she has worked as a server for five years, she first filled out some paperwork that asked her whether she’s experienced any COVID-19 symptoms.
Answering that she’s been symptom-free, she then walked over to a van where a medical worker swabbed the back of her throat to be tested anyway.
Leviner has been out of work since March 17, after the governor suspended dine-in services in restaurants in an effort to curb the novel coronavirus’ spread, leading her employer to lay off restaurant workers.
“We knew it was for our safety and it is a business,” Leviner said. “You can’t afford to pay people when nobody is coming in. It’s a fluid thing right now — we’re all just trying to roll with the punches.”
On Tuesday, Blue Marlin’s owners executed the start of a plan to increase staffing — and business — at the restaurant.
The restaurant tested roughly 35 employees for COVID-19, regardless of whether they have had symptoms, as a way to welcome them back to work. Results should come back in 24 to 48 hours.
“I’m reassuring my employees that their co-workers are safe, and I’m also reassuring my customers that we will have a baseline of employees that will ensure there is safety and there is health when they try to visit our restaurant,” Blue Marlin owner Bill Dukes told reporters.
Dukes said he is spending $5,000 to test his employees and to provide them with health care monitoring, through his personal doctor Oscar Lovelace, if they test positive for the virus.
Employees will get daily temperatures checks and questions about whether they have had any symptoms of COVID-19 or any known exposure to someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The restaurant’s decision to test employees comes as pressure mounts on the governor to reopen some businesses closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Those still shuttered businesses include places where people come in close contact, such as salons or gyms, and dine-in service at restaurants.
But experts say states should have greater access to testing and more effective contact tracing to help identify where the virus is spreading before reopening their economies.
“Clearly the way forward, the way to get back to work, is find out who may be an asymptomatic carrier,” Lovelace said.
The testing paid for by Dukes is much more liberal than current testing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on when someone should get tested for the coronavirus.
The CDC has prioritized people get tested for COVID-19 if they are hospitalized, are health care workers or first responders with symptoms, residents in long-term care facilities or prisons with symptoms, or people identified through contact investigations.
People who have fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, muscle pain, loss of taste or smell, sore throat or digestive issues, also should be tested, according to the CDC.
The daily check for employees’ symptoms along with other protective measures is the key for businesses to be able to operate safely, said Linda Bell, the state epidemiologist.
“It’s better to screen for symptoms of illness,” Bell said. “Certain businesses depending on the setting can consider checking temperatures (and) making sure their employees wear masks. A test result doesn’t offer any protection. It’s just a point in time. It doesn’t tell you if they will become ill later.”
Another business in Columbia has put in protocols in place to show how businesses could operate.
Nephron Pharmaceuticals, which has been able to continue operating, has instituted daily temperature checks at shift change for its 2,000 full-time and part-time employees. The company also has access to COVID-19 tests for employees if they are showing symptoms, and offers to to test employees of its neighboring businesses.
“The goal is to show we have a healthy workforce, a healthy Columbia, so we get the economy up and running,” said Nephron Pharmaceuticals CEO Lou Kennedy.
Other safety precautions
It’s unclear when dine-in service at restaurants will resume. But some businesses have ideas of how to do so safely.
Dukes has suggested that restaurants be able to allow outside dining with tables spaced at least six feet apart. He also plans to have employees wearing masks and perform increased amounts of cleaning around the restaurant among other measures to help reassure customers.
He said he’s hopeful the governor will allow outdoor dining with social distancing by next week and indoor dining by the following week.
Gov. Henry McMaster has not said definitively when he plans to roll back his executive order that suspended dine-in services at restaurants, closed some non-essential businesses that have close contact, and limited capacity for other businesses allowed to operate.
On Monday, McMaster said many decisions must be made before allowing restaurants to serve customers in house, including how many tables to allow, what the proper distance between customers should be, and whether to allow salt and pepper shakers on table, among other things.
“There are a lot of variables that we’re settling down to figure out what the best rule is, the best course is for us,” McMaster said Monday after meeting with Accelerate SC, a group he formed to advise him on when and how best to reopen the state’s economy. “As soon as we’re able to determine what the best thing to do is, the safest thing, that’s when we’ll do it.”
Reporter Maayan Schechter contributed.
