Restaurants flouting COVID-19 vaccine condition to face stiff penalty

Dining now comes at the cost of being vaccinated and any restaurant which flouts this measure to entertain unimmunised patrons will be penalised.
This was the warning given by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Tuesday, when he outlined that routine checks will be made to such outlets, with backing from the National COVID-19 Task Force Secretariat.
As of August 1, 2021, dining is permitted at restaurants at 60 per cent capacity and tables placed six feet apart. Patrons at these businesses, except for children, must be vaccinated and have in their possession, an official identification document in addition to their vaccination card.
“If you’re going to outdoor or indoor dining at a restaurant, then it’s now the law that you must be vaccinated…If you fail to do so and the restaurant decide they’re going to allow you to eat there, we have the Task Force and the Police that would be doing random checks and any restaurant owner who allows such behaviour to happen in their restaurant would face a stiff penalty,” the Minister cautioned.
Since this provision was mandated, several restaurants have publicly notified their customers of the changes when accessing services.
The measures will end on August 31, 2021 – unless earlier terminated, extended or amended by notice of the Health Minister after an assessment of the prevailing public health conditions. Before accessing services at Government agencies, unvaccinated persons are now tasked with calling the entity and making an appointment.
In order to transport members of the public, the gazetted document stipulates that, “Every operator and conductor of any public transportation service shall be vaccinated and have in their possession, an official identification document and their vaccination card, and shall produce these documents when requested to do so by a policy officer or any authorised by the Minister of Health”.
Meanwhile, casinos, betting shops or cinemas have been given the greenlight to operate but only at forty per cent capacity of the building or seating area. Patrons will only be allowed entry upon possession of a vaccination card to show their immunisation status.
Dr Anthony has since urged persons to get vaccinated since unimmunised persons would have greater difficulty in accessing services.
“We have put in place, several measures, from the 1st August and persons who are not vaccinated would have a more difficult time getting access to certain services…I would urge people to get vaccinated because it would make things much easier for you.”
He added, “We’re trying to protect people because there is a surge of cases across the globe because now you have a variant called the Delta variant that is infecting people. If you’re unvaccinated and you get that Delta strain, then the chances are you are going to end up in the hospital and you can die from COVID.”
Recent COVID vaccination statistics for Guyana has shown that almost 30 per cent of eligible persons have been completely immunised in Guyana. When it comes to first doses, 252,978 persons or 52 per cent of people have turned up for their first COVID-19 shot. Some 141,628 have returned for their second, moving the completely immunised subset to 29.1 per cent. (G12)