Bluffton, Port Royal restaurants close after employees test positive for coronavirus
Two Beaufort County restaurants announced temporary closings after employees tested positive for coronavirus.
The Fat Patties location in Port Royal posted Tuesday afternoon on Facebook that the staff member who tested positive for COVID-19 had not worked since starting to feel ill.
“However out of an abundance of caution we have decided to close until all employees can be tested,” the post says. “During this time we will have our facility professionally cleaned. We will open when we have enough healthy staff to do so.”
The person who answered the phone at Fat Patties on Tuesday said no one was available to comment.
In Bluffton, one person on the staff at Cinco Mexican Grill tested positive for coronavirus last week, so the restaurant closed its doors temporarily.
“As soon as I found out, I was like, ‘We need to shut down,’” said Claudia Macias, manager of the restaurant in Buckwalter Place.
She said the entire staff, around 20 people altogether, has been tested for COVID-19 and is awaiting the results. If all goes well, the eatery could be open for business again by Monday, June 29.
The restaurant has been following all recommendations from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and will continue to do so, Macias said.
“We took all precautions,” she said. “Everybody was wearing masks all the time.”
Macias said the employee who tested positive spent two days in the hospital but now is recovering at home. She said she was not at liberty to share more about the person or their health.
“We will be opening again,” she said.
Captain Woody’s in Bluffton announced on Friday that it was closing indefinitely after an employee there tested positive.
Beaufort County has had 911 cases of coronavirus and 16 deaths since the pandemic began, according to DHEC data released Tuesday afternoon.
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 2:30 PM.
