Whitefield restaurant closes after positive coronavirus tests

Mezzaluna in Bury New Road closed from last Friday and all staff are currently self-isolating.

It is expected that the restaurant will remain closed for around 14 days, until it is safe to reopen, owner Francesco Stefanuto said.

The closure comes after a customer tested positive for Covid-19 and informed the restaurant last week.

Soon after, a staff member began to show symptoms of the infection during his day off, and also tested positive.

Consequently Mr Stefanuto took the decision to send all his staff home to self-isolate and to shut up the restaurant.

He said: "A customer told us they went for testing and then notified us that they had tested positive.

"Then one of the members of staff tested positive on Friday morning. They are perfectly well. They had mild symptoms.

"We were notified and so I told the staff to go home and isolate for 14 days."

Mezzaluna is a family run Italian restaurant which has been open in Whitefield for three years.

Mr Stefanuto said he was concerned about having to close at a time when business is challenging for the restaurant sector.

"All restaurants are suffering from the same problems and unfortunately it's going to be like this for a long time," he said.

"If this keeps happening it's not good for business.

He added: "We could have closed for just 72 hours and had a deep clean as this is enough time for the virus to be gone from surfaces.

"But with having such a small team of staff ­— we are not like a big company ­— we don't have the numbers to reopen.

"We will need to wait for them to come back from self-isolation."

Mr Stefanuto also hit out over the advice available online to businesses from the Government about what to do when a positive coronavirus case is confirmed.

He said: "I have spoken with the local authority to find out a bit more because there is not very clear guidance if you Google it.

"And it appears very contradictory so I wanted to speak to them directly."