Covid closes Swettenham Arms

A popular Cheshire country pub has closed its doors after a member of staff tested positive for coronavirus.

An employee at The Swettenham Arms, midway between Macclesfield, Congleton and Holmes Chapel, has tested positive for Covid-19 forcing its closure.

The gastro pub says the worker had no prior symptoms before taking the test but has decided to close for the time being.

During closure all of the other workers at the inn will be tested.

In a post on social media, The Swettenham Arms said: “A member of our staff has tested positive on Thursday for COVID-19.

“The staff member in question is a responsible and valued member of the team. They were contacted by Track and Trace to be told they’d been exposed to the virus at a different venue, had themselves tested and came up with a positive result having had no prior symptoms.

“In the circumstances we did the only thing we could do, which was to have all our remaining staff tested and temporarily shut down the pub.”

Pubs and other hospitality venues were ordered to close their doors in March as the nation went into lockdown.

They were allowed to reopen in July so long as they followed strict coronavirus guidelines, these now include registering customers on test and trace.

The statement continued: “Since we reopened in July we have been following stringent cleaning procedures to safeguard our customers, deep cleaning all public areas on a regular basis.

“We have had to shut down temporarily in order to perform an extra thorough deep clean and to allow our staff to be tested.

“Once all areas have been properly sanitised in accordance with government guidelines, we can then bring in new temporary staff who have not been exposed to the virus. Our original staff will only return after 14 days or after receiving a negative test result.

“We cannot afford to take any chances with the safety of our staff or customers so have taken the difficult decision to shut down completely so that we can control the situation.

“We are sorry to disappoint our customers and hope to be open again very soon, as soon as we can do so safely.

“We will keep everyone informed as to how things are going and when we can reopen. Thank you all for your continued patience and understanding as we try to do our best in this strange new world.”