A POPULAR Ayrshire hotel has closed its flagship restaurant after two members of staff tested positive for covid.

The owners of the Seamill Hydro to close the Orangery restaurant and will only be serving drinks at their second restaurant, Aura. Residents in the hotel will be able to access room service.

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George Jarvie-Jones, Associate Director, said: "As soon as we were made aware of the possibility of members of our team being infected, we reported this to the Health Protection Team at NHS Ayrshire and Arran and followed all guidance provided. Two cases of coronavirus in our workforce have now been confirmed by PCR tests. We have proactively been supporting the authorities with confirming all close contacts of those employees with confirmed cases.

"Throughout the pandemic the safety of our team and guests has been of paramount importance with us often going further than just complying with regulations. The measures we have implemented are regularly commented on by our guests as the most robust of any venue they have visited with customers telling us again and again that feel safe when enjoying time at the hotel."

A local environmental health team had previously to visit the hotel and review the measures in place to minimise the risk of transmission, both environmental health and health protection teams considered the safeguards in place robust enough for it to be safe to continue to operate as normal.

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Mr Jarvie-Jones added: "However, to further reduce any potential risk of transmission we took steps to reduce demand allowing us to operate with smaller teams. We have now also requested that all employees take rapid lateral flow tests before returning to work and twice per week until further notice. We are seeing high uptake of testing in our workforce and are pleased to confirm that this has not identified any further potential cases.

"While testing is ongoing and a number of employees remain in self-isolation, we have taken the difficult decision to continue to limit the service we are offering within the hotel, with our Orangery restaurant closed and the Aura Lounge Bar offering drinks service only to hotel residents. We are also offering room service to our guests throughout this period. Our leisure facilities, salon and gift shop remain open as normal."

All scheduled weddings at the hotel will be able to go ahead.

Mr Jarvie-Jones added: "We would also like to thank our guests for their kind words, support and understanding, we look forward to extending our services again very soon, for further updates please check our Facebook page.

"I would also like to again express my thanks the amazing people we are lucky enough to call our team here at Seamill Hydro. Throughout this pandemic they have shown remarkable resilience, despite personal hardships, working hard to provide exceptional experiences to our guests. We wish our two team members currently infected a speedy and complete recovery and look forward to welcoming them and those currently self-isolating back to work very soon."

Lynne McNiven, Director of Public Health at NHS Ayrshire & Arran said their Test & Protect team can confirm that a contact tracing exercise has been carried out with links to a hotel in the North Ayrshire Council area, following confirmed cases of covid infection.

Ms McNiven added: "We have undertaken a careful risk assessment to identify any individuals who may have had contact with the confirmed case. These individuals and their households have been contacted and told to self-isolate for 10 days and book a test.

All relevant Public Health measures are in place and our Public Health Team is working with North Ayrshire Environmental Health Officers to manage and monitor the situation.

To respect and maintain patient confidentiality it is not possible to release any further information at this time."