-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Ja-Mar Drive In will be closed until Monday morning. Owner Jerry Jordison confirmed the closure is due to an employee testing positive for COVID-19, and the restaurant will undergo deep cleaning over the weekend.

Ja-Mar Drive In temporarily closed Thursday morning after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.

Owner Jerry Jordison confirmed that one employee, who last worked at the restaurant during her eight-hour shift on Friday, tested positive for COVID-19 after finding out a relative she was in contact with had been hospitalized for it.

Ja-Mar announced the closure on social media Thursday and will be closed until Monday. The restaurant owner said all of the restaurant’s approximately 35 employees were tested by Webster County Public Health Thursday morning and test results are expected within 48 hours.

Jordison said that the employee did not come into close contact with any customers through food delivery, and that he was assured no customers had been at risk of exposure. The owner immediately stopped operations Thursday morning upon being notified of the positive employee’s status. Company policy provides two weeks of paid leave for any employees who test positive for COVID-19.

“We got ahead of it,” Jordison told The Messenger, as many employees said they did not want to continue working until they knew the status of their coworkers.

Jordison commended public health staff for their swift response and help navigating the situation. It was recommended that all employees in direct contact with the employee be tested. Because all employees have been tested, Ja-Mar cannot reopen until results come back.

“Close contact” is defined as being within a few feet of an infected person for about 30 minutes, according to Webster County Public Health.

“That way, all of us will know it’s a virus-free zone,” he said. “I don’t want to (just) check temperatures and wear masks, I want to know for our health that it’s safe to work there.”

Assuming there are enough employees negative of COVID-19, he said the restaurant will reopen on Monday. Ja-Mar’s will undergo extensive cleaning before reopening, which Jordison said is already done on a daily basis with a virus-killing spray.

The dining room at Ja-Mar has continued to remain closed, even after Gov. Kim Reynold’s said, effective Friday, that Webster County dining rooms could re-open at 50% capacity. Since the order was made last week, four more positive COVID-19 cases have been identified in the county, doubling the previous total.

Assuming the brisk business continues at the drive-thru, Jordison said Ja-Mar’s dining room will continue to be closed. The drive-thru orders, which accounted for about 60% of sales before the pandemic started, have picked up enough slack to pay the bills, even with the dining room closed.

“We decided, thank goodness, to caution on the safe side,” he said. “We thought for our health and customers’ health, it would be safest not to open the dining room. After this, I’m so glad we didn’t.”

Though he’s assessing the situation on a weekly basis, he anticipates that the dining room won’t reopen until 100% capacity is permitted and other social distancing limitations are no longer necessary.

The owner said he thought the situation might have been inevitable, with public health experts and epidemiologists widely stating that a majority of Americans will become infected at some point.

About 80% of positive cases involve people with mild to no symptoms and no need for hospitalization, according to Kelli Bloomquist, public information officer for Webster County Public Health.

“We’re truly one of the first places in Fort Dodge to have this, but you will see a lot of places,” Jordison told The Messenger. “Eventually, some worker is going to have it at another place. You’ll see more and more of it, but you can only do what you can do.”

He decided transparency was the best policy.

“It’s going to suck, because (people will act like) we’ve got the plague,” Jordison said, “but we’ll survive it.”

Anyone with mild symptoms is reminded by WCPH to call their healthcare provider, the Community Health Center or public health’s COVID-19 hotline, where nurses are standing by ready to answer questions and guide the public. The hotline can be reached at 515-227-7153 or via email at WebCoCOVID@webstercountyia.org.