Governance
Safe zones: public policy set by press conference
Restaurants, bars and gyms can reopen only to vaccinated customers. The rules arrived faster than the regulations behind them.
From this week, restaurants, bars, gyms and cinemas can reopen as “safe zones”, for fully vaccinated staff and customers only. Businesses had spent more than five months closed.
Many owners were told about the policy at a press conference before the regulations were published. Details of verification, liability and how to treat staff with medical exemptions were still being answered in follow-up statements days later.
Linking reopening to vaccination is a policy choice that many countries have made. What it needs is written rules the public can read and rely on, and a law behind every obligation it places on employers.
Owners are being asked to enforce public health rules at their own door. They should at least be told in writing what those rules are.
Sources
Independent reporting by Pearce Robinson. Corrections and responses may be submitted here.
