A Brighton pub reopened yesterday (Thursday 17 September) having closed as a precaution because of concerns about the coronavirus.
The Preston Brewery Tap – run by Sara Wilkinson and her business partner Kate Gregory – said on the pub’s Facebook page late yesterday (Wednesday 16 September): “Dear Customers and Friends, Thanks for your patience and understanding over the last few days, it really has been a very frustrating time for us.
“The good news is that Sara is now much better but we have of yet not been able to get her a test.
“We contacted our environmental health officer, who in turn asked Public Health England for advice and we have been given the all clear to reopen tomorrow as Sara continues to self-isolate.
“I have conducted a thorough deep clean of the pub in line with the guideline in our covid-19 policy document and am therefore happy to say that we will open from 4pm tomorrow, Thursday 17 September.”
For the past few days there has been a notice in the window on one of the doors at the pub on the corner of Preston Road and South Road, in Preston Village.
It said: “Sara has woken up this morning and feels unwell.
“She has a temperature and while we don’t think it is covid-19 we have decided that the only responsible thing to do for our customers and staff is to close until we have had the test results.
“We have been unable to access a test centre due to the high numbers of people requesting tests and have therefore bought a private test but as this is a postal service we will not be expecting any results before Wednesday afternoon but most likely it will be Thursday.
“If we manage to get a test result before this, we will post here immediately.
“As an added precaution we will have conducted a thorough deep clean of the premises.
“Just to reiterate, we do not think that Sara has coronavirus but the safety of our staff, customers and friends is of paramount importance to us.”
Customers and neighbours have praised the pub’s “safety first” approach.