COVID-19 Update: 11-25-20

Hi everyone! Thank you to the Camellia Rd community for all the support, wishes, and love especially during these trying times. We wanted to provide a more detailed post about Camellia Rd Tea Bar’s COVID-19 Safety Action Plan. The Action Plan outlines different conditions depending on the local health guidelines and on our team’s situation.

On Friday, a member of our team discovered that someone in their household was in direct contact with someone who was positive for COVID-19. The team member acted quickly by informing us and getting a COVID test. In accordance with our Action Plan, this team member began their self-quarantine and awaited results. We removed this team member from the work schedule, and Camellia Rd Tea Bar remained open during this time, and awaited updates on test results.

Approximately three days later, this team member began exhibiting symptoms. We were still awaiting test results, but based on the team member’s personal assessment, they felt strongly that they had contracted COVID-19. As a team, we place a lot of trust into each other. Although we were still technically waiting for the test results, we proceeded as if we had a positive case and implemented our next steps:

1. Inform the team and the public.
2. Close the store for at least 7 days.
3. Have each team member who has come into contact take a COVID test.
4. Sanitize the store's surfaces and ventilate properly.

We’re happy to hear that the team member tested NEGATIVE. However, for personal reasons, they’ll still be self-quarantining for 14 days and we will be happy to have them return afterwards. As such, we have very limited reason to expect that any transmission of COVID may have happened within Camellia Rd Tea Bar at this time. However, because of Thanksgiving holiday and the cost of closing and reopening (tossing and renewing inventory) we’ll be sticking to our timeline of reopening on Tuesday, December 1.

This is our first major internal case, and while I hope it’s our last we can’t be sure. We’ve found it extremely helpful to plan and be prepared for different scenarios, and to be open and honest with ourselves and our team. Thank you for your patience, caution, and understanding!

-Ricky Lau