Sports bar shut down for violating COVID rules, Washington officials say

A sports bar in Washington had to shut down after it violated the state’s COVID-19 restrictions, according to King County Public Health.

Stimpy’s Sports Bar and Grill in Kent was closed on Monday for providing indoor dining in defiance of Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 guidance, which went into effect on Nov. 18, according to public health officials. Restaurants and bars are prohibited from providing indoor dine-in service and they must follow strict rules if they offer outdoor seating, the guidance says.

Steve Siler, owner of Stimpy’s, was trying to keep his business afloat, not make a statement, he told KOMO.

“This is a survival thing where it’s either open or die and it’s all I have,” said Siler, according to the news station. “And if I lose my bar, I lose my house and I lose everything. And at some point you have to fight back and I’m just trying to survive.”

Siler says employees and customers are required to wear masks in the bar and grill and customers are required to sanitize upon entry, according to KOMO.

Stimpy’s will be allowed to reopen if indoor dining restrictions are relaxed and if they are in compliance with the guidelines, health officials say.

Inslee announced Tuesday that some restrictions in the state will be eased the week of Jan. 11, according to KING. The state also revised its reopening plan to focus on a region-based approach instead of doing it by county, KING reported.

Inslee’s plan, titled Healthy Washington — Roadmap to Recovery, “aims to safely ease some restrictions while also maintaining crucial hospital capacity,” the governor’s website says. The state will be divided into eight regions based on health care systems during the two-phased plan, according to the Seattle Times.

Regions must meet four qualifications before moving into phase 2, including a certain percentage of decreases in case rates, hospital admission rates, an ICU occupancy rate below 90% and a less than 10% positivity rate, the Times reported.

The state has 248,580 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday and 3,541 deaths, according to the department of health.

This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 2:20 PM with the headline "Sports bar shut down for violating COVID rules, Washington officials say."