Owners of an Aberdeen grassroots music venue have warned of the dangers of Covid as they temporarily close their doors to customers after three bartenders contracted the virus.
Krakatoa on the city’s Trinity Quay will remain closed until Tuesday following a busy trading weekend amidst staff shortages.
More than 200 customers are reported to have passed through the venue’s doors on Saturday.
Owners have now taken the decision to temporarily close until Tuesday after staff were left tired amidst covering for three bartenders who were forced to isolate after contacting Covid.
Taking to social media, owners stressed staff were booking a PCR test as a precaution as “Covid-19 is pretty rife” due to rising cases across Scotland.
They wrote: “We’re a little short staffed due to three of our bartenders (who caught Covid a week ago) being forced to isolate until the 15th. Everyone is tired from working cover shifts especially after such a busy weekend, so we’ve taken the decision to shut Krakatoa until Tues 14th.
“Meanwhile everyone working here is going to book a precautionary PCR test for Monday.”
They added: “As most of you will be aware Covid-19 is pretty rife at the moment, and even double vaccinated people are getting sick with the Delta variant.
“While our ventilation system can keep the air in the room clean, it’s not capable of preventing close contact spread among people who are interacting face to face, and less than a meter apart. People who are hugging, kissing, shaking hands, shouting at one another over the music etc.”
Last week, owners appealed for feedback to gauge the potential spread of Covid-19.
Findings found around 40 customers and performers were confirmed to have tested negative, with zero infections being reported.
‘Please do bear all this in mind’
Proprietors are appealing to customers to “bear in mind” the potential risks when attending busy concerts in the months ahead.
“Once again over 200 of you were in Krakatoa for several hours on Saturday, in some cases for perhaps as long as 13 hours,” they wrote.
“These busy all day events provide a great opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of our ventilation and help us to better gauge the safety of future events.
“Just to reiterate though: Covid is here to stay, ventilation cannot stop the virus spreading via close contact, and vaccination isn’t perfect at preventing infections… so please do bear all this in mind if you’re planning on attending any busy concerts.”
A spokesman for Krakatoa said: “There’s a common misconception that the vaccine prevents symptoms, but many people actually end up becoming quite ill.
“Krakatoa is sufficiently well ventilated to change the air once every 5 minutes, but we felt it was important for our customers to be cognisant that there were still significant risks from close personal contact.
“Thankfully our outbreak was limited to workers who had been in close contact with one another.”
Operators of the bar have been reaching out to customer and performers to gauge the infection rate of Covid following their visit.
They stress the nature of the scheme is to establish how beneficial ventilation is to help them adapt their operating plan.
A spokesman added: “Covid isn’t going to disappear. The best we can hope for is that people become more immune to it as they have with other seasonal bugs.
“In the interim, the spread of the virus needs to be controlled by passive measures.
“We’re attempting to gauge how much impact ventilation has, in order to adapt our operating plan accordingly.  That might necessitate altering the capacity and/or duration of our events.
“Initial feedback appears to indicate that ventilation upwards of 10 litres clean air per occupant per second is eliminating most of the airborne risk, but it’s still early days.
“We’d like to arrive at a point where people can attend shows secure in the knowledge that they aren’t risking their health (or anyone else’s), by doing so.  This doesn’t just apply to Covid, it should also help to reduce the spread of colds and flu.”