Rumpus Beer Co. is closed due to a COVID-19 exposure. (Jocelyn Doll/Revelstoke Review)

Rumpus closed due to COVID-19 exposure

Owner said he initially didn't qualify for a COVID test

Rumpus Beer Co. has closed its doors after being open for lounging for just five days, since their initial closure in March.

They had a customer, who visited them on Dec. 17, test positive and owner Fred Orndorff also tested positive.

Orndorff said he woke up on Dec. 23 with sinus congestion and a head ache, when he called to book a test they wouldn’t let him because he didn’t have the right symptoms.

Since he was considering returning to work he embellished his symptoms a little bit in order to get a test, which came back positive on Dec. 29.

“This experience has me losing faith in ‘[the authorities] know more about what is going on’,” Orndorff said.

Luckily with a machine malfunction and a holiday closure, Orndorff hasn’t been at work since before Dec. 21 and due to the COVID precautions at Rumpus, Public Health said the Dec. 17 exposure was low risk.

But if it was, Orndorff said he has no idea where he would have picked up the virus. He is behind plexiglass and wearing gloves at work and spends the rest of his time at home.

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As for his symptoms, it is mostly just a head cold. If there hadn’t been a pandemic he said he wouldn’t have thought much of it. If he doesn’t have a fever he will be done with isolation on Jan. 4.

Those who were potentially exposed at Rumpus will be contacted by Public Health, Orndorff said.

The Orndorff’s closed their doors in March, following the initial public health order. Instead of opening when allowed to later in the year, they kept their doors closed, relying on to-go orders to survive.

“Why risk re-opening,” was the train of thought at the time, Orndorff said.

For more information about COVID-19 testing go to news.interiorhealth.ca/news/testing-information


 

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