More Dallas Restaurants Forced to Close Again As Employees Contract COVID-19

• Even though most of Dallas’s dining rooms have reopened at limited capacity according to Texas governor Greg Abbott’s Open Texas plan, a handful of restaurants across the city have been forced to close again as their employees contract COVID-19.

In a statement posted to Facebook on Friday, the Carrollton outpost of Cane Rosso announced that it would temporarily close its doors to regroup and sanitize following an employee’s positive test. “We are hopeful that our strong cleaning, required masks, and no-contact procedures that were implemented at the beginning of the pandemic have contained the spread, but we will be closing this restaurant effective immediately, while we assess the situation,” the restaurant said in the statement.

A similar situation played out at Zoli’s, Cane Rosso’s New York-style sister pizzeria in Addison. In response, Zoli’s and Cane Rosso owner Jay Jerrier announced an extensive plan to reopen both restaurants, which includes employing a “professional sanitation crew” to clean the space, COVID-19 testing for all employees of Zoli’s and Cane Rosso Carrollton, and pre-shift temperature checks for employees.

As Eater previously reported, Zoli’s and Cane Rosso aren’t the first restaurants to close their doors again following positive COVID-19 tests. Preston Royal Chinese eatery Royal China announced that it would close temporarily last week, and Nick Badovinus’s ritzy steakhouse Town Hearth reported a positive COVID-19 case among its staff a few days after the shutdown order was implemented.

These new closures come as Dallas County continues to report record-high new cases of coronavirus. As of last Friday’s numbers, there have been more than 13,500 reported cases of coronavirus, and 280 deaths.

• After Reopening at 50 Percent Capacity, Royal China Closes As Employee Contracts COVID-19 [EDFW]
• Dallas County reports record number of new coronavirus cases for third day in a row [DMN]