On Friday, public health officials linked 18 new cases of coronavirus in Clark County to a Vancouver restaurant.
Four Orchards Tap Bar & Grill employees and 14 customers have tested positive for coronavirus, according to Clark County Public Health.
“Given the number of clients who have tested positive, we are concerned that others may be at risk of becoming ill,” Dr. Alan Melnick, director of Clark County Public Health, said in a statement.
The agency is now working to identify people who may have been exposed., Spokeswoman Marissa Armstrong said.
County officials urge people who visited Orchards Tap Bar & Grill between June 19 and 25 to be tested for coronavirus, even if they have no symptoms, and to be quarantined at home for two weeks from the day they they visited it. The county is still investigating, Armstrong said.
“We are interviewing everyone who tests positive and uncovering, of course, anyone who has been their close contact, contacting those people, letting them know they were exposed and asking them to be quarantined,” he told The Oregonian / OregonLive.
The restaurant closed voluntarily on June 25 and is not yet open. No one immediately returned a call and an email to the restaurant.
“We really care about the safety of our customers and staff and we wanted to share this information as soon as we received it,” the restaurant wrote in a Facebook post on June 26. “Today and the following days, all our personnel will be evaluated. We will reopen when we know it is safe to do so. “
The county began tracking the outbreak on Monday, the publication says, after an Orchards Tap employee tested positive for the coronavirus. Three more employees tested positive and public health employees found clients they had visited during the time they may have been exposed to the virus. The most recent restaurant-related case was reported Thursday.
In May, the Vancouver food processor Firestone Pacific Foods had an outbreak of more than 110 coronavirus cases that led Washington state officials to suspend Clark County’s request to move to Phase 2 of reopening.
