Popular burrito spot confirms nine positive Covid-19 cases among staff

Mexican restaurant Burrito Loco has confirmed that nine members of its staff have tested positive for Covid-19.

Burrito Loco, based in Letterkenny, issued the update on social media on Monday afternoon having posted last week that ‘a parent of one of our employees has tested positive for Covid-19’. The restaurant subsequently closed as a precautionary measure and while they had been hoping to reopen today, followers have been told that there have been nine positive cases among staff.

In a lengthy Facebook post, Burrito Loco explained that ‘we want to be as transparent as possible and share our journey to show other workplaces or groups how we dealt with this and how it transpired.’ They added that ‘all staff had mild to no symptoms, except for one who is still feeling poorly. All of us have been in contact with The Public Health Authority and are co-operating fully with their track and trace teams.’

It was also stated that a timeline of how the virus entered the restaurant has been scripted and that the company ‘wants to explain just how easy it is to come in contact with the virus and signs to look out for.’

It is believed that the spread began with a community transmission of a staff member who was ‘on a night out in the town’, who then took two days off work due to feeling unwell. It is explained that ‘when they returned to work, the staff member did not display any Covid symptoms such as a persistent cough, high temperatures, etc. The staff member never showed a high temperature when returning to work. Four days later, two other staff had symptoms of a head cold, blocked nose and a few aches but nothing that would point to Covid symptoms. The staff themselves felt it was a head cold and within a day or two felt normal again. Three days later, we closed Burrito Loco on the news of a positive case from a parent. It took eight days in total for the virus to spread through our staff.’

Burrito Loco’s post ends by urging everyone to stay safe and you can view it in full here.

(header pic: Burrito Loco on Facebook)

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