Verona and The Balcony wine bar to reopen this week

Verona Kitchen and Bar and its adjoining wine bar, The Balcony Late Lounge, on High Street, was one of three hospitality businesses in the area that shut following the August bank holiday weekend.

The Kirkfield Hotel on Church Street also closed, saying a small number of customers who had visited that week had tested positive for Covid-19.

Several days later, Verona and The Kirkfield released a joint statement saying they would remain closed as a precautionary measure until September 19.

Verona then released a statement on Facebook giving more details of why it had taken the decision to close.

Verona Kitchen and Bar on High Street in Newton-le-Willows opened on Tuesday

“In addition to closing the restaurant and wine bar, on Sunday 6th September, we asked all of our staff to go for testing,” Verona said.

“We now have had confirmation this morning that someone who had attended Verona whilst infectious during the bank holiday weekend had contact with some of our staff.

“Unfortunately, some staff members have since tested positive.

“The affected staff members and their contacts are being notified and followed up through the test and trace system.

“At the moment there is no evidence of any further customers being affected, however this is still being investigated.”

The Kirkfield opened on Friday as originally planned but Verona announced last week that it would open on Tuesday, September 22, from 12pm.

The Balcony will open on Friday, September 25, from 5pm, and from 12pm on Saturday.

The reopening of some of Newton’s most popular nightspots comes as public health chiefs continue the fight to curb a growing number of coronavirus cases in the area.

Data sent from the local public health team today (Tuesday) shows that between September 13 to 19, St Helens had an infection rate of 111.6 per 100,000 population, from 201 new cases.

Broken down by ward, Earlestown saw the highest number of cases, with 28, giving an infection rate of 240.2.

Newton had the third highest number of cases and infection rate, with 21 cases and an infection rate of 268.4.

The recent spike in the area has seen a mobile testing unit deployed to Fairclough Street car park several times over the past week.

The Kirkfield Hotel on Church Street in Newton-le-Willows reopened last week

From today (Tuesday), a number of new lockdown restrictions will come into force in St Helens, as part of measures announced for the whole of Merseyside, Warrington Halton and Lancashire.

Late night restrictions for hospitality will be introduced as part of the measures, with leisure and entertainment venues including restaurants, pubs, and cinemas required to close at 10pm.

Hospitality for food and drink will be by table service only.

People are also banned from socialising with others from outside their household or support bubble inside a home or private garden.

On Monday, England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and the Government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance held a televised press conference to discuss the rising infection rate across the country.

Sir Patrick Vallance warned that Britain could be facing 50,000 new cases a day by mid-October if the current rate of infection carries on unabated.

By mid-November, he said, this would be expected to lead to more than 200 deaths per day.

Prof Whitty said we should view the current resurgence of Covid-19 as a “six-month problem that we have to deal with collectively”.