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Businesses navigate changing protocols to keep staff, customers safe

McLain's Bakery sign
Posted at 4:31 PM, Jul 16, 2020
and last updated 2020-07-17 11:41:28-04

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Businesses in Waldo are making changes to the way they do business in order to keep staff members and customers healthy.

“Our goal is to try to stay as healthy as possible, keep our employees as comfortable as possible and still try and serve people,” said Mollie Lothman, co-owner of McLain’s Bakery.

The pandemic has forced businesses everywhere to make adjustments, almost on a daily basis.

In March, McLain’s Bakery temporarily shut down its dining room, later expanding dining options to include a walk-up window and outdoor seating area. The indoor dining room has since reopened under city guidelines.

With the changes also came capacity regulations, limiting the number of customers and employees in the same area.

“It might slow down our ticket times a little bit, but it’s worth it to us,” Lothman said.

Across the street at Bier Station, outside seating is all that’s available.

“We have not allowed people inside except to use the restroom since the beginning of COVID,” Bier Station owner John Couture said.

Couture told 41 Action News the decision to keep the dining area inside the building closed was precautionary.

“Luckily, we haven’t had anything yet, but I feel like you just always have to be prepared because you never know. It could happen to anyone at anytime,” Couture said.

Neither McClain's Bakery nor Bier Station has had a customer or staff member test positive, but they say that if they did, they would work with local health officials to take the appropriate steps.

If a business has a staff member or customer test positive for COVID-19, there are a few steps the business should take that don’t always result in a shut down.

Local health departments say businesses should figure out who the patient was in close contact with, meaning anyone who was less than 6 feet away for 15 minutes or more. Those people should isolate for 14 days, regardless if they test negative for the virus.

“What we’ve leaned is it’s very situational and depends on what’s happening, who they’ve been close to, when they found out that they’ve been exposed, things like that," Lothman said. "So we’re trying to handle each situation as it comes."

Health officials recommend sanitizing and monitoring the business for transmission. If the case count grows, closing the business for a deeper clean would be the next step.