COVID-19 has brought massive changes to how businesses can legally operate. With different stages of restrictions comes the other measurements that businesses should align with while continuing to boost the economy.
That being said, you, as business owners, should be aware of these governmental lockdown restrictions, especially for businesses, so that your business can practice health and safety measures accordingly and follow the existing guidelines. Here are the most important things to familiarise yourself for your business to run under lockdown restrictions.
Lockdown Restrictions for Business During Lockdown That You Need To Know About
Here are five lockdown restrictions for business that you need to know about:
COVID Tracer App QR Code Poster
It is obligatory for every business in New Zealand to display its NZ COVID Tracer QR Code. It is needed to help make tracing easier if one of your customers is found to be COVID-positive so that people’s activities and movements can be tracked down for further health checks to prevent the broader spread of the virus.
With this QR code poster, which businesses can officially get from the New Zealand government, everyone who comes to your venue will be required to sign in – both customers and employees. However, sometimes, customers may not have access to this tracer app; therefore, your business should as well prepare alternative systems like booking or contract tracing register to help with the same intention.
Maximum Number of Customers
Each level of alert applied in New Zealand will have a different maximum number of people gathered in the same venue. This restriction is to ensure that your business is not packed with people – the condition which will possibly increase the chances of the virus spreading.
While Alert Level 1 does not tell about this maximum number of people, Alert Level 2 states that only up to 100 customers are allowed to gather within any defined space, including restaurants, gyms, conference venues, and other ten customers each table. Alert Level 3, on the other hand, will not allow anyone to come to your platform unless it is a supermarket, dairy, petrol station, pharmacy, or permitted health service.
Hygiene Measures
This comes much to your duty as a business owner – you should always maintain hygiene measures while operating your business. Aside from ensuring a lower spread of the virus, it will indeed make your customers feel more comfortable and safe during their visits to your business area.
As for how it is standardized, this includes disinfecting your venue regularly, providing a sufficient supply of hand sanitizers and hand-washing, and regularly wiping and cleaning your surfaces. Do not risk any chance!
Space Arrangement
In cases where people may come and gather, you should also apply strict physical distancing to your customers – we never know who is coming to your venue while COVID-19 mainly spreads through droplets. So, keep your distance!
The government’s restrictions say that customers should keep at least 2-meters distance away from each other at all times in any retail business. Meanwhile, in venues that enable 100 people to gather, they should keep the groups 1 meter apart. It is then recommended for business owners to stick signs on the floor to indicate this space arrangement, especially where customers have to queue. Installing walls or partitions between the cashier and the customers, for instance, will definitely be recommended as well.
Restrict Unwell People From Coming
Also, you should ensure that all your employees and customers are not coming when showing COVID-19 symptoms like fever, coughs, respiratory symptoms, and others. While every citizen is already mandated to not violate this, you should still apply measures to make sure that this will not happen.
This includes checking on customers’ and employees’ temperature at every entrance. You should always distress your employees that they are not allowed to come to work if they feel unwell. Remember, we’ll never know until a test is conducted – it is always better to keep your business in caution to prevent bad possibilities from happening.
Those are the 5 most critical official lockdown restrictions applied in New Zealand that you should know about to ensure that your business operates in alignment with the guidelines. Make sure to keep your business safe at all times!