[ad_1]
SINGAPORE: Food and beverage outlets are seeing fewer cases of customers violating COVID-19 restrictions, but some people still take the rules lightly, restaurant representatives said.
Under Phase 2 of Singapore’s reopening, each table or group must be limited to a maximum of five people, with at least 1 meter of space between tables.
Groups of more than five people are not allowed, even if they are divided into several tables, unless they are from the same household.
Customers should have their masks on before food or drink arrives and after finishing their meal, but diners often forget to do so, F&B operators told CNA, adding that diners have also tried to blend in between. the tables.
About two Sundays ago, Fat Prince employees on Peck Seah Street in the Tanjong Pagar area had to ask a man to leave after he refused to wear a mask despite repeated reminders and became aggressive, he said. Michael Pekarsky, the group’s chief operating officer. who runs Fat Prince.
Pekarsky said he has also come across people trying to make reservations for more than five people and asking the restaurant to put them on separate tables. He has had to refuse, telling them that it is against the law.
“Most understand and say ‘I’ll take my business elsewhere,’ which we understand,” he added.
READ: 2 restaurants ordered to close, 13 food and drink establishments fined for violating COVID-19 security measures
When CNA visited the hotspots for dining in Bugis, Clarke Quay, Tanjong Pagar and Holland Village on a Saturday night, groups of people were seen breaking COVID-19 rules.
On several occasions, there were groups of more than five sitting together outdoors or talking across tables.
Groups of more than five were also seen standing outside food outlets.
For example, there was a group of seven waiting outside a Korean barbecue shop on Amoy Street around 7pm. They had separated into two rows, but were less than 1 meter away from the other group and chatting with each other.
More than five people were sitting at a table along Baghdad Street on a Saturday night.
More than five people were sitting at a street vendor center in Holland Village on a Saturday night.
Outside a bar along Haji Lane around 9 p.m., a group of six people were seen smoking together.
And while groups of diners waited for seats outside another food establishment, most stood less than a meter away from other parties.
Mr. Mohammad Asgar, who runs the Bhai Sarbat tea stand where the CNA observed a group of more than five women sitting together, said he did not see them.
He stressed that he would have asked them to leave if he had seen the situation.
It is not the first time that you have come across clients who try to break the rules. Most would separate or leave once he approached them, but others have turned hostile and vulgarized him, he said.
“We cannot fight those people,” he added.
Eric Khor, a co-partner of Mei Heong Yuen Dessert’s Liang Seah Street establishment, said the weekend crowd is large and there is a sudden surge in customers sometimes. CNA had shown him a photo of a queue outside their store. The groups were not separated by 1 meter.
He explained that the line could have been of people waiting to make a reservation, as customers who have already done so cannot wait outside for a table.
To handle the crowd, an employee is deployed outside to jot down customers’ mobile phone numbers, and they are supposed to wait for the call before approaching the establishment to be seated, Khor said.
Food and drink establishments fined or ordered to close for failing to enforce the rules have been in the news from time to time as authorities tighten controls. Wandering outlets include those that serve alcohol in teapots after 10:30 PM.
READ: 23 food and beverage establishments violate COVID-19 safety rules, including restaurant serving beer in kettles after 11pm
According to the Minister of Sustainability and the Environment, Grace Fu, 846 food and drink establishments have been inspected in recent weeks and, as of October 5, 16 of them were ordered to close for 10 days.
46 establishments were fined, or about 5.5 percent of those inspected.
Additionally, 53 clients were fined for failing to observe safe management measures.
The ministry said the figures refer to controls carried out between September 12 and October 5.
“When taking compliance measures, agencies will also take into account whether the operator has made an effort to advise or dissuade the customer about non-compliance with safe management measures,” Ms Fu said in a written parliamentary response on 6 October.
“Eating in food and drink establishments carries considerable risks to public health because it usually involves gathering in closed spaces, without masks and for a long time,” he added, urging people to take the rules seriously.
Diners are now more aware of the rules
F&B operators said the incidence of customers ignoring the rules has decreased since late August, attributing it to news reports of suspended or fined restaurants and customers. At the same time, most diners are now used to COVID-19 protocols.
“I think adjustments have now become part of people’s ‘exit’ DNA,” Pekarsky said.
“It’s been a lot easier lately as customers are now more aware and informed about the dining room rules,” added Damien Tan, COO of Benjamin Barker, who runs The Assembly Ground’s branches at The Cathay and Cathay Cineleisure.
When there are customers who are “a bit (more of a) challenge to deal with,” your employees explain that it is not the coffee restrictions but the government rules that they are enforcing, and that the store would be in trouble if it does not comply, Tan said.
Most of them comply after that, he added.
In Sanobar, located at the corner of Bussorah and Bagdad Street, about 80 percent of its customers comply with the rules, said operations manager Maja Iskandaria. The other 20 percent tend to be people who come in groups of more than five and insist that their tables be placed next to or close to each other, he added.
Clients tend to comply after Mr. Iskandaria and his team explain the situation, “because (at the end) of the day they know that wherever they go, it will be the same scene,” he said.
“Most of them, they just try their luck, and if they really can’t, they just give you a kind of face and you just have to put up with them until they finish their dinner,” Mr. Iskandaria told CNA.
READ: COVID-19: Phase 2 of reopening starting June 19, social gatherings of up to five people allowed
Ángeles Herrero, owner of Kazbar along Church Street, recalls a recent incident that involved a group making two separate reservations. Their employees had to tell them twice to stop talking to each other and threatened to kick them out before they listened.
It was an unpleasant experience, he said. “(We need) to get to that point, which is not our job … we don’t want to be known as the place that tells you you have to go.”
Wilyawati Tiju, founder of Korean restaurant group Seonggong, said that based on feedback from her employees, there are now far fewer instances of people socializing at tables compared to when Phase 2 began.
His company operates the 9PM Kkochi, Seorae, Patbingsoo and Hongdae Oppa food brands.
But your employees still have to constantly remind customers to keep their masks on before and after their meal. Sometimes they heard excuses like “it’s hot. I need to take off my mask for a while ”or“ I’m about to order more food, ”he said.
Ms Tiju added that the need to remind diners about the mask rule can be quite demanding on their employees, noting that safe distancing officers have reached out to their staff members to get customers to put on the masks.
Store managers said they are not letting their guard down even as the situation has become easier to handle.
In early August, Ms. Herrero hired two part-time employees who only enforce safe management measures at her restaurant, such as checking in diners, reminding them to wear their masks when they go to the restrooms, as well as making sure they that the guests of the different tables do not communicate.
Ajay Singh Panoo (in black) is a part-time internal safe management officer at Kazbar Middle Eastern restaurant. Its owner, Ángeles Herrero, said they hired two people for the position in early August (there is always at least one of them on site, she said) to make sure clients comply with COVID-19 rules. (Photo: Rachel Phua)
“Oh my gosh, it scares me so much,” he said of the news about restaurant closings and fines. “We have always tried to follow the rules, but we have to intensify the monitoring because we need to constantly inform customers (to follow the regulations).”
Sanobar owner Nabil Baroudi said: “Sometimes it might be difficult to monitor, maybe in the first minute, two minutes, five minutes. But for me, no, when I see that there are (groups) sitting (at) two, three tables… I don’t allow it.
“I am at the corner of Arab Street, Bussorah (Street). Even if we say I don’t care about the law, someone will see it because I’m on the corner. So I have to be very tough about it, ”he added, emphasizing that he had to raise his voice to a customer last week who insisted on moving to another table so he could sit closer to his friends.
When CNA pointed out that people from two adjacent tables were seen interacting with each other, Baroudi said “maybe I didn’t see them” at the time.
“I’ll ask you to stop, definitely,” he said.
Hererro said it is a “shared responsibility” between diners and restaurants to abide by the rules, and urged customers to do their part as well.
“They are regulations, and it is for your own safety, for our safety and for our staff,” he said. “You, as a customer, come and interact with a person. We interact with 200 people ”.
Pekarsky echoed his sentiments and shared what he tells customers trying to make bookings that break the rules: “Please understand that these are strange and unfamiliar times and we are doing everything we can to ensure we keep our business ( and) keep all our guests and staff safe. ”
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
