SIT-IN RESTAURANTS REGULATIONS: No alcohol to be served, social distancing reduced, bars are still closed and more

Zimbabwe’s restaurants will not be able to be able to serve alcohol under the relaxed rules for lockdowns.

Under the new regulations this is what you need to know:

Restaurants can serve meals to sit-in customers “during licensed hours” ‒ presumably, the hours they are permitted to be open by their liquor licences or the licences issued to them by the local authority in whose area they are situated.
Restaurants are not allowed to serve alcohol [This does not apply to facilities operated by the Parks and Wild Life Management Authority, or to safari operators. Inebriated safari-goers, it seems, are less likely to spread the virus than inebriated diners.]
Restaurants must reduce the number of their tables and chairs so that they operate at half capacity.
Counters, tables and chairs must be disinfected before the restaurant opens and after it closes [Although the SI does not say so, it is implied that disinfection must be done daily].
Customers in restaurants must observe the social distancing rule ‒ i.e. must stay at least one metre apart ‒ and must wear face masks except when eating or drinking.
Hotels must keep a room free to detain guests who show symptoms of Covid-19, pending their removal to a hospital or isolation centre [Apparently this applies only to hotels which run restaurants].
Staff of restaurants, safari operators and parks facilities must all:
- get Covid-free certificates every 14 days
- wear face masks and gloves while working, and
- wash their hands at least once every three hours while at work.

The new lock-down relaxations were announced at the end of last Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting as if they had already been enacted, and were reported in the press as if they were in force. They were not, of course, until the amendments were gazetted last Friday. This is yet another example of Ministers announcing changes to the law as if their announcements can change the law without need for anything further.