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Over 250 businesses inspected and approved for operation so far

Owners of more than 250 businesses that have been approved for reopening are going above and beyond government’s recommendations to implement hand hygiene, social distancing and other safety measures to prevent the spread of Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) locally.

Chief Environmental Health Officer Lionel Michael said he has been impressed by the level of cooperation that his department has seen to date.

He said local business owners have complied by erecting signs, turning two-way supermarket aisles into one-way aisles and reducing the number furniture in a room to facilitate social distancing.

“Business owners are taking it very, very seriously and have been taking it very seriously before and after the lockdown. I would say that they have gone beyond the call and have established higher standards than what the government has recommended,” Michael told BVI News.

He added: “The cooperation has been tremendous and encouraging and when we make recommendations to the business owners, they welcomed and accepted the recommendations. I see very good evidence of practice and people are trying their best.”

Inspection 

The environmental health chief further said COVID-19 business inspections have been going on smoothly; adding that his team of inspectors look for three main things during their assessment.

The first is hand hygiene stations at the entrance of, and throughout the facility as well as cleaning and disinfection of the establishment.

The second is social distancing measures and how they are enforced and encouraged through floor markers, work station separation, and barriers.

The third area is personal protective equipment and its availability in the establishment. 

Michael also said his team has been working for long hours during the entire weekend to get the inspections done and thanked them for their dedication.

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11 Comments

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  1. Resident says:

    Outside of bvi electricity is a muck. No social distancing! Ridiculous!

  2. Great job says:

    This is a great achievement by all concerned.
    Public and private sector working well to ensure best and safest outcome for all.
    Easy only to see the bad things at these times: let’s congratulate ourselves on this.

    • With the security at the dour all up in people face holding door the business honer staying home sending the workers out. says:

      Love people more than money if these people cash the virous and spread it all over the place who to blame crab in a barell.

  3. Jane says:

    Where the 250 is? Them still ain approve most so ppl cld go work and make money

  4. Confused says:

    Why is Klass Electronics featured ? Are they opened ? Electronics were not on the essential list from my understanding. ?

    Like 2
    Dislike 1
  5. Notice says:

    A t some of these place the security at the door are so close to the people whon coming into the business place if one of them should cash corona virous (god forbid ) then they would just be the distrubiter, when i was going into these place a fue weeks back i notice the casher them was up in the face of the customer ,the workers on the iles of the supermarket pasing all over and around the place buncksing on peoplen like is business as ugal.

  6. With the security at the dour all up in people face holding door the business honer staying home sending the workers out. says:

    Love people more than money if these people cash the virous and spread it all over the place who to blame crab in a barell.

  7. Info says:

    Name them

  8. Logic says:

    Publish the list of approved businesses.

    Places with narrow isles should not have shelf-stackers working in them while shopping underway- it makes it impossible to keep distance. They can do that in the afternoon.

    I’ve not seen one-way isles anywhere, so again, impossible to keep distance.

    Door security are the worst offenders on social distancing, give people space! And stop needlessly bossing people about if it’s clear the queue is behaving and self regulating, those people in the queue have brains too. “Security” written on your hat does not make you a sargeant major.

  9. Concerned Customer says:

    Environmental Health need to go and do surveillance when buisneses are opened to the public. The only place I see with a one way isle is Super Value but does not have the 6ft marker in the said isle. That is the only issue observed there. One Mart has no one way either but has
    6ft markets throughout but the flow of customers movement has been ok. RTW and Riteway is a hot mess. Receipe for disaster.
    No hand wash station. They cannot afford to install a wash basin provide water and soap? Security at the door offering to spray your hand with sanitizer. Too close for comfort. No way can they be 6ft away from you to do that effectively. Shameful.
    Why don’t RTW and Riteway install wall sanitizer Dispensers at the entrance and at strategic areas in the store. The owners could care less. Shop at your own risk. Their only concern is to get our money. There’s no crowd control. It’s a hot mess in those RTW stores. The only 6ft markers are going towards the cashiers. Bobby’s needs to have 6ft markers throughout the store also.
    No frequent cleaning of cashiers counter. It’s appalling.
    They all seems to be sanitizing the baskets which is commendable. But one observation. One mart, please stop or ensure that customers refrain from taking your carts away from the compound. You have done an excellent job. Just need to have one way isles. The cashier barrier shield,maintaining clean counters and sanitizing hands after each customer and also ensuring that customers sanitizer hands on
    entry and exit.
    For those establishments that have someone opening the door, please have them stand behind the door which can be a barrier, rather than in front of the door. Those were my observation. Environmental Health, again you need to revisit RTW and ensure that they are following or have the required protocols in place to protect customers and employees from Covid 19

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