A few weeks after their reopening, bars and restaurants across Quebec are already forced to close due to outbreaks of COVID-19 among their employees.
“Most of the staff caught it. We decided to close for five days. We have too many employees who have COVID to open and operate at the moment,” says Jules Gauliard Martineau, owner of the Rockette bar.
He decided to close his establishment, located on the Plateau-Mont-Royal in Montreal, as a precaution. “We also want to protect customers. We are not going to ask our staff to come to work when they are sick,” insists Mr. Gauliard Martineau.
Remember that restaurants and bars have been operating at 100% capacity only since March 14
Several cases
The newspaper found more than a dozen bars and restaurants that have announced their temporary closure due to outbreaks over the past few days.
Most of these businesses are in the Greater Montreal area. Among them, we note the Cafécoquetel in Villeray or the Turbo Haüs bar in the Latin Quarter.
“COVID has been difficult for us recently, so we are closing to regroup, to keep ourselves healthy and to make decisions on how we want to operate,” the Turbo Haüs Facebook page reads. which does not plan to reopen before April 3.
Helena Sokoloff, of Le Darling bar on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, says their business “closed twice this weekend due to very sick employees after testing positive for COVID-19”.
“We play Tetris squarely with the schedules to try to stay open,” adds Ms. Sokoloff.
Establishments are also affected in the regions. This is the case of the Nambu Restaurant, in Drummondville, which is forced to close due to “too many employees who are currently in confinement following a positive test result for COVID-19”.
Responsible owners, according to the ARQ
Martin Vézina, of the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ), is not surprised by these closures due to the rise of the BA.2 variant.
“We haven’t heard of many restaurants in this situation. But to see owners closing their establishments shows that they are taking the situation seriously and that they do not need population measures. [du gouvernement] to manage the situation,” says Mr. Vézina.
No stats
According to the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), it is impossible to know if Quebec is witnessing an increase in outbreaks in bars and restaurants at the moment.
“Since January 2022, only outbreaks in healthcare settings, living environments and more vulnerable settings have been compiled in the registry of COVID-19 outbreaks in Quebec. As a result, it is not possible to determine whether there is an increase in outbreaks in bars and restaurants, ”explains Robert Maranda, spokesperson for the Ministry.