Events in toronto: Gusto 101 temporarily shuts down after employee tests positive for COVID

Just a week after an employee tested positive for COVID-19 at Chubby's in Toronto, another employee has tested positive at another Gusto 54 restaurant right across the street.

Gusto 101 is known as being one of the most popular Italian restaurants in Toronto, but now they're being transparent and letting everyone know about an infected employee.

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To our Gusto 101 Famiglia, For many, Gusto 101 is a home-away-from-home. A place where the $1/oz house wine flows and mafalde ai fungi and cavolo nero are plentiful. While we have taken every step possible to ensure your second home here at 101 Portland St is one where you feel safe to eat, even during the most uncertain of times, it’s on days like today where we are reminded that this world is a hard one for restaurants, the awesome hospitality workers who keep us going, and our wonderful guests that continue to support us when we need it most. Through the lens of safety and transparency (the only way forward), we are saddened to announce that one of our team members at Gusto 101 has tested positive for COVID-19. This team member, who’s last shift at Gusto 101 was Saturday, September 26th, went to get tested out as a precaution and is currently quarantined at home. While not mandatory, we have immediately closed our restaurant until further notice as our guest and team member safety will always be number one. During this time, we are taking the following action: ⠀ ⠀ ∙ Gusto 101 will be professionally sanitized to eradicate the possibility of any surface contamination⠀ ∙ The full team at Gusto 101 is in self-isolation and will be required to get tested for COVID-19. A clean bill of health will be required before returning to work.⠀ ∙ Contact tracing details have been shared with Public Health and those who they deem to be at-risk will be contacted. It is highly recommended that you download the COVID Alert app if you have not already done so. ∙ All reservations for the few days will be rescheduled or canceled, stay tuned for updates. ∙ Shared this update on http://gusto101.com + specific details on when this team member was working. ⠀ We are optimistic that this is an isolated case as no other team members are experiencing symptoms and rigorous sanitation, social distancing, and mask-wearing procedures were followed. We will only reopen when we feel it is safe to do so. continued in comments 👇

A post shared by Gusto 101 (@gusto101to) on Sep 28, 2020 at 11:43am PDT

"Through the lens of safety and transparency (the only way forward), we are saddened to announce that one of our team members at Gusto 101 has tested positive for COVID-19," Gusto 101 wrote on their social media on September 28.

"This team member, [whose] last shift at Gusto 101 was Saturday, September 26th, went to get tested out as a precaution and is currently quarantined at home. While not mandatory, we have immediately closed our restaurant until further notice as our guest and team member safety will always be number one."

The social media post goes on to say that Gusto 101 is being professionally sanitized, that all team members are currently self-isolating and being tested and will require a clean bill of health to return to work, and that contact tracing info has been shared with Public Health which will contact any at-risk parties.

The specific times during which the infected employee was last working have been shared on the Gusto 101 website.

"While it is certainly discouraging for another one of my Gusto 54 team members to have tested positive for COVID-19, we feel optimistic that our health and safety measures within the restaurants have prevented the spread any further," says Janet Zuccarini, Gusto 54 Owner and CEO.

"With Chubby's, no additional team members tested positive which indicated to us that we were doing everything right - wearing masks, regularly sanitizing, social distancing. These factors all worked in tandem to keep everyone safe and we hope that this is the case for Gusto 101 as well."

Zuccarini goes on to say she's grateful for the ongoing support of Gusto 54 restaurants, and that team members and guests have to continue to work together to stay safe and support the local businesses that need it most right now.