• a few staff members tested positive for the virus last week
• steps, taken based on the MoH advice, to close and disinfect areas exposed to  infected staff

By JAMILA HUSAIN

The Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel in Colombo yesterday said that some of their staff members were subject to PCR tests over the weekend after a few staff members tested positive for the virus last week, resulting in all the restaurants in the hotel temporarily halting operations for over 24 hours.  

A senior official from the hotel said that restaurants had temporarily halted operations over the weekend, based on the advice of the Medical Officers of Health and all the restaurant premises were disinfected.  

The official said that some staff members, who had shown symptoms recently had been removed from operations and were checked by the in house doctors after which they were sent for PCR tests. After their tests came in positive, the hotel took immediate steps, based on the MoH advice, to temporarily close all the areas that had been exposed to the infected staff members.   

The restaurants resumed back to normal operations last evening after MoH clearance was granted and after all the premises had been thoroughly disinfected. The hotel said PCR tests were also conducted on all its team members who were on duty.  

Guests who had made reservations at the hotel, had been notified and some in house guests had been moved to Cinnamon Lakesides’ sister hotels in Colombo.  

The official said Cinnamon Lakeside had a policy to conduct random PCR tests on their team members, often, and whenever a team member suffered from any symptoms, they were removed from operations immediately and referred to the in house doctors. Based on their advice, team members were then subjected to PCR tests.