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After the government passed a resolution Wednesday to close all non-food and nonessential stores starting Wednesday, people flocked to shopping malls. From the same morning, there were traffic jams in the parking lot near Klaipėda “Akropolis”, and in the shopping center, a lot of people.
According to Raimundas Grigaliūnas, head of the Klaipėda department of the National Center for Public Health, it is very unfortunate that people are not aware and, despite the danger, rush into the shops just before closing. On the other hand, he assured that the department has neither the resources nor the people to control whether there is a breach of the procedures in force in supermarkets.
“The police are in control,” says R. Grigaliūnas.
Nobody counts
Andromeda Grauslienė, head of the Communication Department of the Klaipėda County Police Commissariat, told Western Express that the police do not specifically verify compliance with the rules in supermarkets.
“The police constantly patrol all public areas, including supermarkets, and monitor compliance with current regulations. The supermarkets themselves must ensure that the resolutions adopted by the government are complied with, ”says A. Grauslienė.
When asked who should monitor whether the requirement of 10 square meters per buyer is actually met, he said it was the job of the National Center for Public Health.
R. Grigaliūnas is surprised by this attitude of the police. According to him, the Public Health Center focuses on the health system and hospital care. However, he acknowledges that the situation is constantly evolving, depending on the decisions of the emergency operations manager.
“Ensuring security is a matter for the mall managers themselves,” says R. Grigaliūnas.
However, he highlights that in supermarkets like Akropolis, where there are many stores and many entrances, it is very difficult to count people.
“It is easy to count people in a store, but a separate issue is the aisles between stores. The most important thing is that people do not meet,” says R. Grigaliūnas and states that what he lacks most is the awareness of the people themselves.
“It is very unfortunate, but it seems that in this situation money wins against common sense,” says R. Grigaliūnas.
Standing in rows
“Vakarų ekspresas” on Monday made sure that the security guard at the main entrance to the “Acropolis” did not regulate the flow of customers, but only made sure that everyone was wearing masks. Queues formed at the bank’s branches and ATMs.
A queue stretched down the hall at the Lithuanian post office in Akropolis: more than two dozen people were in line live. Not all followed the recommended distance of 2 meters. Maxima, located on the Acropolis, had many cash registers, so there were no larger queues.
Queen Ernesta, the Acropolis media representative, reported that supermarket managers had met since morning and discussed specific solutions, promising to comment on the situation as soon as the information became available.
According to Dominykas Mertinas, head of the communication department at Akropolis Group, supermarkets are likely to receive more customers from Monday to Tuesday than usual these days of the week.
© DELFI / Rita Gečiūnaitė
“We are prepared for that – all this year we give the highest priority to the safety and prevention of the health of customers and employees, therefore we are prepared for various scenarios.”
We invite shoppers to stay tuned and go to supermarkets today or tomorrow only when necessary, after clearly planning the shopping list and evaluating in advance which stores they will need to visit. Customer flows at entrances to and into supermarkets are closely monitored, ensuring that the minimum retail space requirement for customers is met, ”says D. Mertin.
According to him, this used a larger than usual number of employees from the security company. Information stickers are placed at store entrances to see how many people can be in them at the same time. If necessary, customer flows in individual stores or the Acropolis as a whole would be immediately restricted.
Virginija Anužė, manager of the Klaipėda “Molas” shopping center, told “Vakarų ekspres” that the work is organized these days as in the last week, according to all the planned requirements. The number of parking spaces in the parking lot is limited, the flow of visitors is monitored, and access to stores is restricted when evaluating commercial space.
“The center has a traffic monitoring system that allows you to see the current flow of visitors. Additional increase in the number of security guards. They control each entrance and, if necessary, suspend the entrance of visitors so that the number is not exceeded allowed from buyers, ”said V. Anužė.
New prohibitions
“Vakarų ekspresas” recalls that as of Wednesday, the activities of shops, including shops in shopping and entertainment centers, markets and other public outlets, are prohibited in Lithuania.
The prohibition does not apply to stores whose main activity is the sale of technical food, veterinary, pharmaceutical, optical and orthopedic devices; food trade in markets and other public outlets; online commerce and in cases where the goods are delivered to natural and legal persons or collected at special points.
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