Click here for updates on this story
FORT DODGE, IA (KCCI) — As of Thursday evening, the coronavirus positivity rate in Webster County is more than 20% and a video on social media from a Fort Dodge pub has raised health concerns amongst some in the community.
The video shows a bar employee pouring alcohol directly into the mouths of customers from the same bottle. The video went around on Facebook, but the person who posted it did not give us permission to use it. It has been taken down from social media.
On Thursday afternoon, KCCI did reach out the Dan Billingsley, the owner of Sneakers Eatery & Pub in Fort Dodge. He didn’t want to go on camera, but confirmed the video shows what happened inside the pub on Oct. 30 at their Halloween party.
“Bottle shots were passed around. They’ve been reprimanded,” said Billingsley about the employee involved.
Billingsley tells KCCI the team will continue to follow their COVID-19 mitigation steps, which have been in place since March.
“After every table is serviced, the whole table and everything gets fully sanitized. We’ve taken tables and chairs out of the building. We’ve switched to using only pre-wrapped straws,” explained Billingsley, who also said he has less staff in the building at any one time than was done before the pandemic. Billingsley says if the business is investigated, he’ll do what he needs to do to correct the situation.
The director of the Webster County Health Department tells us they did see the video earlier this week and it was forwarded on to the Iowa Division of Inspections and Appeals as well as Iowa Department of Public Health. KCCI reached out to the two departments, but did not hear back by Thursday evening.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.