Kagwe relaxes Covid-19 rules restaurants to re-open under strict conditions

Relaxing the rules: Health CS Mutahi Kagwe.

The government has laid strict measures for the opening of restaurants after several weeks of closure due to coronavirus pandemic.

In his daily update on the pandemic in the country on Monday, the CS Health Mutahi Kagwe said restaurants that will be cleared to reopen will operate between 5 am and 4 pm and must limit the number of customers.

According to the CS, there will be no self-service and 10 square meters for four people will have to be maintained.

“This is not a licence to start alcohol sales, we have not opened bars,” he cautioned. The persons preparing food in the restaurants will have to undergo COVID-19 test and washing of hands, sanitizing, wearing of masks will be the order of the day.

Kenya on Monday confirmed eight new cases (four in the coast region and four in Nairobi) bringing the total number to 363. The total number of those who have recovered is now at 114.

List of the guidelines

• All restaurants shall only operate between 5 am and 4 pm
• Restaurants must limit the number of diners to four people for every 10 square metres space
• Tables in the dining areas must be spaced 1.5 metres apart in the dining area or seat customers group at 1.5 metres apart
• Maintain distance from the back of one chair to the other chair not less than a metre and guests must face each other from a distance of at least one metre.
• Alcohol shall only be sold with a meal in the restaurant and only be served to customers waiting to be served a meal, during the meal, or 30 minutes after the meal has ended.
• Temporary discontinue self-service of ready to eat foods such as salad bars or buffets
• Customer to have their meals delivered individually to the dining table by appointed restaurant stewards
• Install adequate portable running water and accessible washing basins for handwashing purposes, install alcohol-based hand-sanitisers at the entrance and exit points
• Restaurants and eateries must install a contact free thermometer and ensure that every person entering the premises has his/her body temperature taken
• Any staff member or reveler with temperature above 37.5 degree shall not be allowed entry into the premises, and the premises shall immediately notify the ministry of health through toll free number 719 for guidance.
• Ensure physical distancing (1 metre-3 feet) in food preparation areas

The new measures would see Kenya join other nations across the globe that now considers reopening some businesses following days, weeks and months of total closure.

According to Reuters News Agency, Italy, Austria, New Zealand are among countries easing their ways out of strict lockdown.

New Zealanders will be able to go fishing, surfing, hunting and hiking this week for the first time in more than a month as the country begins to ease its way out of a strict lockdown that successfully slowed the spread of the coronavirus.

Around 400,000 people will return to work after the country shifts its alert level down a notch at midnight on Monday, but shops and restaurants will remain closed as several social restrictions remain in place.

Austria will allow bars, restaurants and churches to reopen on May 15 in a further loosening of its coronavirus lockdown provided infections do not surge again, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Tuesday.

South Africa is considering introducing flexible restrictions on economic activity after it phases out a nationwide lockdown, according to a draft government presentation seen by Reuters on Wednesday, last week.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson however said on Monday it was still too dangerous to relax a stringent lockdown hammering the economy as that may cause a deadly second outbreak