Staff Shortage Forces Some British Columbia Restaurants to Close Amid Growing Number of COVID-19 Cases | The Canadian News

Amid the growing number of COVID-19 cases and evolving public health guidelines, British Columbia restaurants are having a difficult time keeping their doors open.

Many companies in the province’s hotel sector were already understaffed due to the ongoing labor shortage in the province.

With the Omicron variant generating a record number of new cases on a daily basis, some, like Vancouver’s Autostrada Osteria, have been forced to close at a busy time of year that they would normally rely on to get through the lean months of January and February.

Co-owner Dustin Dockendorf said the restaurant’s three locations were voluntarily closed since Dec. 23, after multiple staff members tested positive. There were no outbreaks or anything to connect the cases, he said.

“It is a significant success because January is often our slowest month,” said Dockendorf.

“Financially, we will lose about 25 percent of our revenue during the period into our slowest time of the year. January rent won’t be a problem, but February is where it gets tricky. “

With BC’s testing facilities operating at full capacity, the province has begun to sort tests, reserving PCR testing for those most at risk.

People with mild symptoms and who are not in a high-risk category have been told to act like they have COVID-19 and to self-isolate for seven days if they were vaccinated twice.

That puts even more pressure on restaurateurs, who say the evolving guide has been frustrating and confusing.

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“There is so much information available now that our teams are having a hard time navigating in good conscience,” said Dockendorf.

“If you live with someone who is COVID positive, but has no symptoms, we have a document that says go back to work, a nurse absolutely tell you not to go back to work when (the staff) go to get your test.”

Mike Jeffs, co-owner of Nook restaurants, said his business voluntarily closed a week before Christmas after some staff members tested positive and others were unsure.

“It wasn’t easy for people to get tested, and I don’t think anybody felt good about coming to work with so many people they’d worked with testing positive, so we just did it a little bit earlier,” Jeffs said.

“It was before Christmas. The last thing we wanted to do was make our entire staff sick. “

Jeffs said the staff wants to work, and the restaurant has since obtained rapid antigen tests, but that obtaining more has been difficult and the restaurant is rapidly depleting its supply.

“It’s never been easy to get tested here. It has been very difficult and it is getting more and more difficult, ”he said. “The staff, they want to know. They don’t want people to get sick, they don’t want to get sick themselves. “

When asked about growing staffing problems Wednesday, provincial health official Dr. Bonnie Henry said the province was closely looking at new guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That reduce the self-isolation time to five days.

The province has also updated the guidance so vaccinated people who were in close contact with a positive case do not need to isolate themselves, he said, but acknowledged that companies would still face challenges.

“It is a reality that for some companies, if they have many sick people, who cannot work, they will need to find ways to have additional staff or they may need to close, and this has been a reality throughout this pandemic.”

Given that many restaurants are already understaffed and having trouble hiring, that probably means the latter, Jeffs said.

“There is no one else to work, so if you can’t do your shift, we just go with fewer people,” he said.

“At some point, we may have to pull the slide all over and be closed for a few days.”

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