The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. As of now UAE has conducted 16,994,124 tests, 171,434 diagnosis, 58 deaths, 156,380 recoveries and 14,474 active cases.
Field inspectors from the Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection, CCCP, Sector in Dubai Economy continued their visits to a number of open markets and shopping centres across the emirate to make sure that commercial establishments commit to the precautionary measures against COVID-19. In light of the pandemic Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management and other relevant authorities have issued safety guidelines.
What are the guidelines?
Fines have been imposed on five commercial establishments for employees non-compliance with the covid-19 guidelines, as of yet. The common grounds or violations made were lack of commitment to wearing masks, and non-adherence to physical distancing.
Just because fines were imposed only on five businesses does not necessarily mean the other were fully complying, the field inspection teams also warned four other businesses for not placing the physical distancing stickers as required. Overall, inspections found out that 787 shops and commercial establishments fully complied with the precautionary measures, which is a very small number at that.
By the looks of it, authorities are not going to give any relaxations and continue to require compliance with all the protocols and safety guidelines till a state of normalcy is achieved. Guidelines are pretty standard; businesses are instructed to make sure customers and staff members maintain the hygiene and sanitization requirements as mandated by government authorities, which includes maintaining a regular cleaning regime, and ensuring the 2-metre safe distancing rule is respected at all times.
Other regulations are that businesses are to ensure everyone present on their property are wearing masks, make sure that employs are checking temperature of the customers and also providing sanitisers for them. They must also maintain adequate records of their members, including names, telephone numbers and visit dates, to assist if contact tracing becomes necessary.
They are also to put up posters and stickers to encourage customers to follow the aforementioned guidelines. As far as celebrating festivals goes the rules recommend holding remote digital celebrations only and encourage reservations in advance for approved events lasting no more than 3-4 hours. Regarding cleaning and sterilization, the rules call for continuous cleaning and sterilization each hour for all public facilities
End note
Violations be followed is a must if us as a society want to move past these testing times, adhering to guidelines is a must in places like salons, restaurants, bars etc. Full cooperation and compliance would result in opening of all sectors and the economic reset. Misinformation has circulated through social media and mass media, so it would be best that one consults a legal expert or frequently checks the web for keeping up with any changes or reforms in the covid-19 guidelines, especially if own a business.
