Manco and Manco Pizza on Ocean City boardwalk suspended slices after employees tested positive for COVID-19

OCEAN CITY, NJ (WPVI) – The popular Manco Boardwalk pizza and Manco’s 9th Street and 12th Street boardwalk locations will remain closed until Saturday after three employees tested positive for COVID-19.

The owners originally said they would reopen on Wednesday, but then announced Tuesday night that they had decided to screen all employees and keep all three walkways closed until the weekend.

“Only employees with negative results will be able to return to work,” the business said.

After Manco’s posted the news on social media, word quickly spread among people on the boardwalk.
“We always go there for pizza. And we did it on Sunday,” said Kimberly Kuris of Beverly, NJ

The owners say two of the employees were asymptomatic and were tested because they came in contact with someone outside of work who tested positive.

“We contacted every staff member who was potentially in contact with those employees, we encouraged them to be tested. And the three positive employees are quarantined for 14 days,” said co-owner Chuck Bangle.

He says they didn’t have to close for a full day, but they felt it was the right thing to do. When stores reopen, they won’t sell pizza by the slice for now, just whole cakes.

“We are going to look at some other ways to review and handle and package those slices for customers,” Bangle said.

We found customers who had just picked up a pizza from Manco on Monday night.

“I was a little worried when I saw him because I picked up the pizzas last night and I hope everything is safe because we took them home with my parents,” said Carrie Dimond, visiting from Massachusetts.

The CDC says the risk of getting COVID-19 from food or packaging is very low. It is transmitted primarily through respiratory drops, and Manco says all of his employees have been wearing masks.

Still, we find people who take extra precautions when ordering takeout.

“When we get our food we throw away the container, wash our hands … we don’t use any utensils from the restaurant,” said Tyler DiCarlo of Absecon, NJ

For those customers who are used to buying by the slice in Manco and Manco, the owners say this is a temporary measure and you will probably only be able to eat a slice of pizza again sometime this summer.