Uh-oh, we may be seeing more of this kind of news again — Zuni Cafe has temporarily closed until Wednesday, December 7 as the restaurant’s staff is largely sidelined by a COVID-19 outbreak.
It’s a story that feels like it’s from a year ago this time, and could be a very troubling harbinger for the holiday season. KRON4 reports, via a social media post by the restaurant earlier this week, that Market Street restaurant favorite Zuni Cafe has closed temporarily over a COVID-19 outbreak among the staff, and will remain closed until Wednesday, December 7.
“We regretfully announce that Zuni will be closed from Wednesday, November 30th through Sunday, December 4th.” the restaurant says in the Instagram post above (the post itself is from Monday). “Due to an upsurge of Covid cases within our team members, we have decided to take preventive measures and close next week to prioritize the health and safety of our team, guests, and community.”
“We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. We look forward to welcoming you back on Wednesday, December 7th,” they add.
This is commendable and responsible behavior, after all, we’ve seen allegations at some restaurants that people were forced to work after testing positive. It’s great they Zuni Cafe is doing the right thing, but it certainly raises a concern that we could be looking at a repeat of last December and January.
How bad are things with COVID-19 infections in San Francisco right now? Let’s go to our preferred COVID-19 Twitter expert, UCSF Department of Medicine chair Dr. Bob Wachter. Very troublingly, his latest update starts with “Ruh roh.”
Ruh roh (at least in SF): asymptomatic test positivity rate @ucsfhospitals now 5% (was ~2% last month). While not a perfect sample, implies that ~1 in 20 people in SF who feels well would test pos. for Covid. In a crowd of 10: 40% odds ≥ one is pos. Airplane w/ 150: 99.9% odds. pic.twitter.com/EqhLEJRT5W
— Bob Wachter (@Bob_Wachter) December 2, 2022
“Ruh roh (at least in SF): asymptomatic test positivity rate @ucsfhospitals now 5% (was ~2% last month),” Wachter tweeted just this morning. “While not a perfect sample, implies that ~1 in 20 people in SF who feels well would test [positive] for Covid.” He adds that in a crowd of 10 people, that would mean 40% odds that one person is positive for COVID-19, and that on an airplane with 150 people on board that would be a 99.9% chance at least one person is positive.
So yes, there is some chance that we will see a bunch of our holiday parties get canceled, just as we saw last December.
Image: Mark Y. via Yelp
