At least three Fernandina Beach restaurants are reporting COVID-19 cases among their employees, forcing more shutdowns, reopenings and rethinking.
The Sandbar & Kitchen was planning to reopen Thursday, June 25, at 11 a.m. after one of its employees tested positive for COVID-19. The restaurant said the employee had not been in the building for six days but the business didn’t want to take any chances.
It was being sanitized and other employees were being tested, according the Sandbar’s Facebook page.
Related: Local, State, And National Coronavirus Coverage
T-Ray’s Burger Station also closed and has been sanitizing as well as having all of its employees tested for the virus. T-Ray’s said the infected employee had no direct contact with any customer on Saturday or Monday.
It's decided to remain closed until all test results come back. When it does reopen, there will be changes. No one will be allowed inside for dining. Instead, the restaurant will go back to drive-through and take-out orders only, according to T-Ray’s Facebook page.
The Amelia Tavern was also forced to shut down earlier this week. One of its employees tested positive after a visit to Jacksonville Beach. It reopened Wednesday after a deep cleaning, according to the restaurant’s Facebook page.
New Nassau County COVID-19 Cases By Day
Nassau County’s reported COVID-19 cases have been going up and down over the past week with 11 cases reported on June 20, two cases reported on June 21, nine cases on June 22 and two cases on June 23, which was the last available day of county data at the time of this story’s publication.
There have been 120 positive test results among Nassau County residents and one death, along with 17 hospitalizations. Eight cases in Nassau County have been reported among non-residents.
As of Thursday morning, there have been 109,014 COVID-19 cases across Florida with 3,281 deaths and 13,574 hospitalizations, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
Photo used under Creative Commons license.
