ALTOOONA, Pa. (WJAC) -- Bella Italia Pizza in Altoona is one of dozens of restaurants throughout the state that have been ordered to close by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
It comes after Bella Italia's owner ignored Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s temporary restrictions and let customers dine in anyway.
The owner said he's staying open, no matter what.
“I’ll lose everything,” said Antonio Serradella, Owner of Bella Italia Pizza. “If I close, I’ll lose everything.”
Customers were still dining-in at Altoona’s Bella Italia Pizza Wednesday, even though
a representative from the department of agriculture tried to close them down last week for allowing it.
Serradella greeted the official at the counter.
“They asked me to close, I said, ‘I’m not closing.’ [They said] ‘We received a lot of phone calls.’’ I said, ‘I bet you did,’” Serradella recalled. “Then they proceeded to say somebody in here has COVID. I said, ‘I’m the COVID guy, I’ve got COVID.’ So, he threw the paper at me and he ran.”
Serradella said he was not infected with the Coronavirus during that interaction, but he said staying open is a matter of personal freedom.
The state sees it as a matter of public safety.
Governor Wolf said his temporary restriction on indoor dining targets a high-risk environment where the Coronavirus thrives and that's by no fault of restaurants.
“We can’t ignore the reality that that virus is out there,” Wolf said. “Whatever we do, this is not me, this is not Secretary Levine talking, this is the virus saying, ‘I’m gonna get you.’”
Wolf is calling on lawmakers to provide increased financial support for the hardest-hit businesses.
He said Wednesday he plans to let the temporary restrictions expire as scheduled on January 4.
Serradella's not convinced.
“They’ll do that for like a month, then they’ll do it again, shake the tree again,” he said. “More will fall until there’s none of us left.”
Hospitals across the region report being near capacity, with limited ICU bed space due to increased cases.
Serradella said that's not his problem.
“I gotta help them out?” he asked. “I gotta go to work. If I don’t go to work, I’m dead.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reports, as of Wednesday, 173 residents have died due to COVID-19 in Blair County alone.
Serradella insists he has a job to do and a staff to look out for.
He said moving away from indoor dining would impact his businesses enormously.
If infected customers come in, he said it's out of his control.
“If they have it, they have it. What can I do? Who am I? I’m not a doctor, I’m a guy that cooks,” Serradella said. “That’s not my concern. If I get sick, well I get sick. That’s it. You don’t die from it. . . well, some people do, but I don’t know. . . I’m still here. I’ve been in contact with millions of people here since this started.”
6 News asked the PA Department of Agriculture if it has any legal recourse when a business refuses to close, but at time of posting, has not received a response.
Serradella said he's not at all concerned about any further repercussions from the state, saying the worst thing would be to close down.
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