Auriemma's Restaurant Pauses Business After Staff Virus Test

MANCHESTER, CT — The Manchester restaurant owned by University of Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma has shut down temporarily after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus.

The announcement came Tuesday — a day after UConn officials announced that Auriemma had tested positive for the virus.

"We’ve made the tough decision that we will be temporarily closing our doors as of (Tuesday) afternoon," restaurant officials said in a Facebook post. "We've just learned a front of house team member has tested positive for COVID-19."

The shutdown is an addd precaution, according top the post.

"While we’ve taken every step to follow CDC guidelines and even implemented many of our own protocols, we still want to be overly cautious and take the time to deeply clean the restaurant, as well as give our staff the time needed to get tested so we can confidently re-open our doors in the near future," management staffers said.

A wine dinner scheduled for Thursday was a casualty of protocol.

"We have had a thorough process in place since the beginning of the pandemic for a scenario like this, and feel grateful our team was equipped and able to implement our plan quickly. While we understand some will be disappointed by canceled reservations and having to postpone the upcoming Wine Dinner, we appreciate all of the support and understanding at this time," restaurant officials said. "We will continue to monitor the situation and work with officials, to follow their recommendations in order to be sure we keep everyone — staff and customers — as safe as possible."

Auriemma's positive test showed up Sunday. The coach, a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, is isolating at his home and is not experiencing any symptoms, UConn officials said.

Contact tracing protocols revealed that Auriemma did not have close contact with any other team member since Friday. All "Tier I personnel" have tested negative for the virus since daily testing commenced, per NCAA Tournament protocol, on March 9, officials said.

"After we received notification of the positive test result yesterday, we initiated contact tracing protocols, which included interviewing individual members of the basketball program and in-depth video analysis of practice," UConn Director of Sports Medicine and Head Team Physician Deena Casiero said. "Only household close contacts were identified. Given the fact that we have been doing daily testing for the past seven days, we feel confident that we were able to catch this very early on in the disease process. The remainder of Tier I tested negative yesterday and today."

The top-ranked Huskies are scheduled to leave campus for San Antonio and the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday morning.

According to CDC and Connecticut Department of Public Health guidelines, Auriemma will remain in isolation for 10 days and can rejoin the team on March 24.

Auriemma received a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on March 10, officials said. According to CDC guidelines, he remains nine-days shy of becoming fully vaccinated.

"I'm feeling well but disappointed that I will be away from the team for the next several days," Auriemma said. "Fortunately, I have a great coaching staff who will lead us during my absence. This revelation is a reminder that, while there is a light at the end of the tunnel, we are not on the other side of this pandemic yet. The full effect of vaccines does not occur until 14 days after our last vaccine dose, and for those of us getting two-dose vaccine, that means we're not in the clear after just one-dose. My team and I need to remain vigilant in the areas of mask-wearing and social distancing as we continue this fight against COVID."