Thirty-two restaurants have so far been given approval to go ahead with indoor dining at a 40% capacity in keeping with the amended COVID-19 gazetted emergency measures.
This information was relayed to Stabroek News by Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), Carla James, who stated that as of Thursday, a total of 75 restaurants were inspected with 32 of those being given approval to operate indoor dining. In addition to the approvals, the GTA will be conducting a marketing campaign in an effort to inform the public of the names and locations of the eating houses.
The country’s COVID-19 Emergency Measures were amended last week to allow for limited indoor dining at eating establishments. With that amendment, the GTA has been given the responsibility to monitor those establishments to ensure that they adhere to the measures.
In an interview with this newspaper, the GTA director stated that the authority continues to receive calls from establishments seeking approval for indoor dining. She noted that initially, when the amended measures were announced, there was a misconception that the restaurants would have been able to just reopen.
“There was a misunderstanding that businesses can just reopen. If you see the COVID guidelines it talks about monitoring, but part of our monitoring process means that you have to seek approval from the GTA first so that we can check off and give you that approval that you can reopen,” James explained.
She added that they have managed to clear the air on that issue and since then businesses have been reaching out to inform that they have been putting the relevant systems in place to be inspected.
“So far as of yesterday [Thursday] I think we completed a total of 75 inspections. Of that 32 have been approved and the ones that have not been approved are being scheduled for re-inspection based on the timeline that the restaurants commit to correcting the deficiencies,” the director said. Further she mentioned that those deficiencies happen to be simple things that are on the GTA’s checklist for approval.
To this end she mentioned that of the 75 establishments that have been inspected so far, the majority are in Georgetown and as far as Mahaica on the East Coast of Demerara and Providence on the East Bank of Demerara.
Checklist
Meanwhile James told Stabroek News that the checklist for approval of indoor dining and services is in accordance with the gazetted COVID-19 measures. This, she said, includes documentation and refers to those businesses having documented standard operating procedures as to how they will deliver service in the midst of the pandemic.
Giving an example, James noted that there are requirements for hand washing or sanitisation stations at the entrances of the establishments to ensure that persons entering can sanitise their hands. “Right now we see a lot of businesses using the spray bottles which is good but what it requires is someone to administer that, which works but what we would really like to get to is no-touch or at least self-administered so that you don’t have to have someone doing that.”
However for businesses with handwashing stations she added that those must have liquid hand soap and not bar soap along with either single-use paper towels or an electric dryer. This station, she iterated, should also have signage which guides persons on how to properly wash their hands as it has been observed that whenever there is signage, it encourages persons to do the right thing. This must be in addition to temperature checks with no-touch thermometers which have been calibrated by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards.
Further, at these establishments, excess furniture in common areas should be removed or taken out of commission to prevent patrons from congregating at the facility. “It’s really just to go – you arrive for your indoor dining maybe [by] appointment and you move and not have people congregating,” she said.
Specifically with relation to the dining areas in these restaurants, James added that once given approval, they are only allowed to have dining at a capacity of 40 per cent. GTA on conducting their inspections, would have to document the restaurant’s total capacity to then do measurements to allow for adequate spacing.
“So we’re just documenting what the capacity is and from there we do our measurements making sure that the tables are six feet apart and the chairs are at least three feet apart et cetera. From that we will then establish that 40 per cent” James explained. This, the director said, must also work along with a reservation system which will allow the restaurant to manage the number of persons coming into the establishment at all times.
Further, in those restaurants, if there are bars, those would have to be closed as the current gazetted order prohibits the opening of bars. This however has not stopped bars from requesting to be opened for service.
“The main definition that we are working at right now is that once your establishment, the main activity is the sale of food, that’s where it’s considered a restaurant, but if the main sales are drinks, then it’s a bar” James pointed out.
The director stated that many places around the word have opened up but have not allowed establishments to open for indoor dining as there must be monitoring of air conditioning systems in these places to ensure that there is extraction of air rather than just circulation.
James added, “I think it’s important that we as the regulatory body certainly understand the struggle that people have been going through for the past nine months not being able to operate so our approach has been that of partnership and I would say more of a facilitator to help them through this process. We really don’t want to take that big stick approach.”
The inspections of these establishments, she mentioned, have started since last week and as those continue, GTA will implement a monitoring system where their team along with the National COVID-19 Task Force will be going around to these establishments unannounced to ensure that they are still operating in accordance with the guidelines.
Further, if any approved restaurant is found in breach any of the protocols and guidelines, it will be shut down for one month.
