Three Durango restaurants have temporarily closed after staff members tested positive for COVID-19.
In recent days, the Diamond Belle Saloon and Mahogany Grille, as well as 11th Street Station, have been forced to close, yet plan to reopen this week.
Tori Ossola, general manager of the Strater Hotel, which includes the Diamond Belle Saloon, said an employee who was exposed to the virus outside of the workplace, recently tested positive.
Staff members are now being tested, she said. Out of an abundance of caution, and a lack of staffing, the Diamond Belle Saloon, as well as the adjacent Mahogany Grille, were closed, Ossola said.
“We’re confident we got a hold of this pretty quickly,” she said.
The Diamond Belle Saloon plans to reopen Thursday, and the Mahogany Grille plans to reopen Wednesday. The adjoining Office Spiritorium and Strater Hotel remain open.
“We really have a lot of compartmentalized operations,” said Rod Barker, president and CEO of the Strater Hotel. “It’s not like everyone is all in one area.”
Barker said the hotel is trying to help control the spread of the virus, while keeping staff members and customers safe.
“We’re just working out of an abundance of caution, as we all should be,” he said.
Marcos Wisner, co-owner of 11th Street Station, said the popular downtown spot will be closed for two days and reopen Wednesday after one staff member tested positive. He added the rise in cases in La Plata County contributed to the decision.
The closure will allow other employees, which include workers at multiple food trucks, to be tested. Wisner said about eight staff members have already tested, and another 15 to 20 employees plan to get tested in the next two days.
“We’ve definitely been on top of it,” he said. “We felt it’d be best to just close to give them time (to get tested).”
Wisner said it’s likely the one staff member who tested positive contracted the virus outside of 11th Street Station.
Claire Ninde, spokeswoman for San Juan Basin Public Health, wrote in an email that the disease investigation at Diamond Belle is ongoing and “SJBPH will continue to evaluate information regarding this and all cases as received.”
“More importantly, at this time La Plata County is known to have very significantly increased spread all across our community,” she said. “In all outbreak investigations, there is a possibility that transmission occurred outside the business. State and local case counts have risen dramatically in the last two weeks and urgent action is needed from all community members to reduce spread of the virus.”
It was unclear if the health department is looking into 11th Street Station.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
