Reopening Beaches, Bars, Restaurants, Gyms & Cinemas in T&T

[hover11]

See yall in those restaurants I will be there with my "vaxxed" card

quoted for future reference. if fake ttps will get involved.

Goodluck with that

[abducted]

This might be a bad idea, people don't know how to be responsible

[MaxPower]

They will check for vaxx cards just as they check for ID when they selling alcohol.

It’s Trinis we dealing with….after a 2 weeks everyone stop asking for vaxx cards just like how no one cares if you sanitize or not to enter most places.

But open up everything man….let’s see what’s out there.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

How are bars going to check for vaccination?
How vigilant will the average rum shop owner be with requesting proof of vaccination from every patron, pardners etc?

[hover11]

How are bars going to check for vaccination?
How vigilant will the average rum shop owner be with requesting proof of vaccination from every patron, pardners etc?

They won't which hawk and spit bar gonna check for vaxxed cards

[MaxPower]

If we want to reopen, we should be focusing on hygiene.

[adnj]

I believe that you have just witnessed the first government posting of a notice of mandated vaccination for the business community:

The PM explained that these operations will be allowed under 'safe zones'. This means that both the staffers and the patrons in these industries would need to be fully vaccinated in order to participate.

[De Dragon]

As usual, all these measures will fail if TTPS do not enforce the laws.
Spot checks, with hefty fines and immediate closure of the business for breach.

[adnj]

As usual, all these measures will fail if TTPS do not enforce the laws.
Spot checks, with hefty fines and immediate closure of the business for breach.

Some of the employees at some of these businesses are unionized. Those employees, along with everybody else, must now vaccinate to return to work.

[Les Bain]

How are bars going to check for vaccination?
How vigilant will the average rum shop owner be with requesting proof of vaccination from every patron, pardners etc?

First thought was that microchips don't lie, but I didn't want to rile up the conspiracy theorists, small churches or local truthers who post half hour long 'sense' rambles on Facebook.

[De Dragon]

How are bars going to check for vaccination?
How vigilant will the average rum shop owner be with requesting proof of vaccination from every patron, pardners etc?

First thought was that microchips don't lie, but I didn't want to rile up the conspiracy theorists, small churches or local truthers who post half hour long 'sense' rambles on Facebook.

The same ones who will roll up and take chook if dey boss say so, does come here and type all kinda bad boy ting, and threaten to hire SC

[redmanjp]

https://www.vox.com/recode/22652766/service-workers-vaccine-passports-customers-mask-mandates

As the delta variant prolongs the Covid-19 pandemic, three major US cities — San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York City — have started rolling out vaccine requirements for anyone visiting indoor public spaces like restaurants, cinemas, and gyms. And other localities may soon follow suit: Honolulu will institute a vaccine passport system this month (patrons can also submit a recent negative Covid-19 test), while the Los Angeles City Council is considering a similar program. But these new proof of vaccination rules are already creating new problems for venues and workers, who have largely been left on their own to figure out how to enforce the requirements and how to respond when angry customers push back.

It all fits into the bigger pattern of how the United States has handled the pandemic. The US rollout of different vaccination and mask requirements has been patchwork. The White House has said it will not establish a national vaccine passport system, meaning that states, cities, and even private companies have built their own versions of vaccine passport apps (while some states, like Florida, have banned vaccine passports entirely). This checkered approach means that despite the wide availability of vaccine record apps, the only standardized way in the US to prove your vaccination status is the flimsy and easy-to-lose paper card with the CDC insignia that doesn’t quite fit in the average person’s wallet.

“A guy came in here and told the bartender, ‘I wanna see your hepatitis and your AIDS vaccine,’” Candace Hutchinson, a manager at Beachcorner Bar and Grill in New Orleans who often greets customers, told Recode. Business has been down at least a quarter since the New Orleans indoor vaccine mandate went into effect on August 16, another Beachcorner manager, Gina Perrett, told Recode, and some customers are rebelling. One customer recently threw a drink in an employee’s face over the new rules.

One effect of these vaccine rules is that they seem to be incentivizing some people to get the vaccine. Last month, 99 attendees at a New Orleans Saints game got vaccinated on-site just so they could enter the arena. In some regions in Italy, vaccination rates surged as high as 200 percent after the country instituted its national Green Pass system, which requires that people present proof of vaccination to enter indoor venues like restaurants and museums, using either a digital or paper version of their vaccine record. And France, which recently began requiring proof of vaccination for indoor and outdoor dining, domestic flights, and other indoor activities, has seen a similar boost in vaccinations.

But another effect of the new requirements is that they’ve thrust the responsibility of enforcing public health regulations on service workers, who throughout the pandemic have already had to deal with abuse from certain customers over temperature checks, mask-wearing, and social distancing. In fact, 80 percent of service workers surveyed by the group One Fair Wage last fall, which advocates against subminimum wages for tipped workers, said they saw or experienced hostility, including racism and sexual harassment, from customers while enforcing public health rules during the pandemic. That’s why some big retail chains that operate in areas without vaccine mandates are avoiding requiring proof of vaccination for customers, according to a CNN report: They don’t have the infrastructure to check IDs and fear that enforcing such a requirement could lead to problems for workers.

That leaves service workers with two bad options, One Fair Wage’s co-founder and president Saru Jayaraman told Recode. They can enforce the rules and risk harassment and lost tips, or they can overlook unsafe customer behavior and endanger their own health.


Some venues in New York told Recode that despite some opposition, most customers are happy to show their vaccine passes. But it’s not just customers that workers have to worry about. After Jen Agg, the owner of Bar Vendetta in Toronto, called for vaccine requirements for indoor dining, her restaurant was flooded with anti-vaccine passport protesters who, she recently told a radio station, “harass my staff and yell at me, scream in my face that we’re Nazis.”

At the same time, restaurant hosts and greeters aren’t necessarily prepared to check vaccine documents or identification cards (New York City, for example, is requiring that indoor venues confirm patrons’ state ID matches the name on their vaccine document). Melissa Fleischut, the president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, told Recode that most of the 40 operators of restaurants she’s spoken with personally have said they’ve had confusion or problems enforcing the new vaccine rules for customers.

Cities like New York and New Orleans have said they’re providing resources to restaurants and other venues that are meant to make enforcing vaccine passport systems easier, including grace periods before beginning enforcement and a training video about conflict resolution, but measures like these seem quite limited. For instance, Louisiana and New York State have released vaccine passport apps that produce QR-code-based vaccine records, an alternative to the CDC’s paper cards. While QR codes are meant to be scanned to be confirmed, several establishments told Recode that right now they’re just looking at the QR code on peoples’ phones and not actually scanning them into a separate verification app.

“Who am I to say if [a vaccine card is] real or not?” asked Regina Delfino, who runs an Italian restaurant, Mario’s, in the Bronx. “Who am I to say you’re not Santa Claus?” She said she will be the one checking peoples’ vaccine documentation at the door when New York City starts enforcing its rules later this month; the other staff at the restaurant don’t want to ask. Even without the requirement that her staffers must check customers’ vaccine status, it’s already difficult to hire people, she added.

[redmanjp]

If we want to reopen, we should be focusing on hygiene.

masks? can't wear them when eating or drinking in these places, hence another mitigation is needed.

[redmanjp]

https://newsday.co.tt/2021/09/03/business-heads-react-to-reopening-based-on-vaccinations

Business heads react to reopening based on vaccinations
TYRELL GITTENS 7 HRS AGO

Some businesses are welcoming the Prime Minister’s suggestion that restaurants. bars, gyms, casinos and cinemas may be reopened soon, even if it’s only for vaccinated customers.

Dr Rowley made the suggestion at a briefing in Tobago on Friday to mark the end of a three-day Cabinet retreat at the prime minister's residence at Blenheim.

MovieTowne owner Derek Chin welcomed the potential reopening and supported the PM’s stance on having customers vaccinated.

But he is calling on Rowley to reconsider some public health regulations to ensure the profitability of these businesses when they reopen.

Chin wants the current curfew hours adjusted, as he thinks most of these businesses will not be profitable under the current hours.

He told Newsday, “We’ll like him to adjust the curfew hours. Even though you may be limiting the population, meaning (only) vaccinated people allowed, 9 o'clock becomes very difficult as a closing time for things like bars and in-house dining. He suggested perhaps 11 pm or midnight: "That would be great.”

Other than adjusting curfew hours, Chin proposed a "reasonable" number of vaccinated people be allowed in places like bars, restaurants and cinemas.

“I would also suggest increasing the capacity (of people), because remember, you are pulling a lesser capacity of people.

“So for example, instead of 60 per cent capacity, allow 75 per cent.”

Open to the idea of working with authorities to get more people vaccinated, Chin is already thinking of ideas like offering free movie tickets to children 12-18 who get vaccinated.

He added, “Of course we want to get more and more people vaccinated so we don’t lose in terms of the size of the pool of customers that’s available to us.

“So the government can very well count on us (at MovieTowne) to assist in any way we can to boost that vaccination number ,because it’s all in our interest.”

And when it comes to what logistics may be needed to manage a system of vaccinated customers only, Chin said it may be something as simple people showing their immunisation cards.

He explained, “Well, people would have to walk with the vaccination cards. I think that is something that’s being done now in Guyana and it is working pretty well.”

He expected pushback on the PM’s position but said at the end of the day, people need to understand that being vaccinated is their best form of protection against covid19.

President of the Bar Keepers and Owners Association (BOATT) Sateesh Moonasar appreciated the proposed reopening of bars.


But he’s concerned about its being tied to TT’s vaccination rate, given that the rate has been falling in recent weeks.

He told Newsday, “The most important thing right now is the fact that the Prime Minister said things are based on the vaccination levels for September.

“At present, we are seeing a slowing of the vaccination levels.

“We are hopeful that people would go out and get vaccinated. We are asking everyone who has not yet been vaccinated to please come forward and get vaccinated.”

For now, Moonasar is cautiously optimistic.

He said proper planning will have to happen before businesses can even think of what a potential reopening with vaccinated customers only will look like.

But he added, “Right now, under the present circumstances, any form of business is greatly appreciated.”

President of the American Chamber of Commerce TT, Nirad Tewarie, said it was useful to be guided by scientific data and that the current data showed vaccinated people are less likely to become seriously ill with covid19.

Tewarie supports any decision which follows science.

He told Newsday, “Based on the available data, it seems wise that everybody should become vaccinated as quickly as possible.

“We have to find ways to get back to a level of economic normalcy to provide livelihoods for everyone and to rebuild. The only way to do that would be to vaccinate.

“Let’s hope that we do not need to get there (where only vaccinated people are allowed into some businesses places) and that people choose to get vaccinated.”

Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce president Diane Hadad did not welcome the PM’s suggestion,.


File photo: Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce president Diane Hadad -
She is calling on him to be "honest" if he wants to make vaccinations mandatory and to stop using businesses as pawns.

She told Newsday, “It seems very clear that the government continues to drive an agenda of using the private sector, by pushing people’s jobs and income in front of them, in threat for them to make personal decisions for their health.

“This is an indication that (the government) is playing a game of mandatory vaccinations.

“It’s either they come out and say that they are making vaccinations mandatory…but it cannot be not mandatory and then you are putting all of these clauses for the private sector.”

While the PM continues to reopen sectors of the economy, Hadad is also questioning the plan for the public service in terms of bringing it back out to work physically.

[redmanjp]

https://newsday.co.tt/2021/09/04/attorneys-maharaj-khan-support-access-for-vaccinated-only/

[De Dragon]

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

[pugboy]

yuh ever see a trini driving bad in uncle sam land

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

[De Dragon]

yuh ever see a trini driving bad in uncle sam land

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

It does say a lot about us and our attitudes that we strictly obey litter, traffic and other laws so strictly in the US, but when we're in our own country not so much.

[hover11]

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

Not really all you need is a vaxxed card and you inside , I got mine

[De Dragon]

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

Not really all you need is a vaxxed card and you inside

It does say a lot about us and our attitudes that we strictly obey litter, traffic and other laws so strictly in the US, but when we're in our own country not so much.

[timelapse]

How are bars going to check for vaccination?
How vigilant will the average rum shop owner be with requesting proof of vaccination from every patron, pardners etc?

Easy, you will cause static on their tv

[adnj]

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

Not really all you need is a vaxxed card and you inside

It does say a lot about us and our attitudes that we strictly obey litter, traffic and other laws so strictly in the US, but when we're in our own country not so much.

Hoover is getting left behind. Hoover is getting angry.

[hover11]

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

Not really all you need is a vaxxed card and you inside

It does say a lot about us and our attitudes that we strictly obey litter, traffic and other laws so strictly in the US, but when we're in our own country not so much.

Hoover is getting left behind. Hoover is getting angry.

Nope I already have my card so makes no difference to me, how does it go if you can't beat them join them, I identify as vaccinated in the public now

[viedcht]

How are bars going to check for vaccination?
How vigilant will the average rum shop owner be with requesting proof of vaccination from every patron, pardners etc?

Right now bars closed 4months plus. Almost every small business owner desperate for sale, so as Max say, give it a month or less, people will ignore vax cards-to-purchase rule

[hover11]

Vaccinate to operate.Vaccinate to segregate.Vaccinate to discriminate.Vaccinate to subjugate.

Well done

[hover11]

One in the same

[adnj]

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

Not really all you need is a vaxxed card and you inside

It does say a lot about us and our attitudes that we strictly obey litter, traffic and other laws so strictly in the US, but when we're in our own country not so much.

Hoover is getting left behind. Hoover is getting angry.

Nope I already have my card so makes no difference to me

If that works for you, great. But it is contrary to how you pontificated that you didn't need to participate in activities where vaccination was a requirement.

My theory: the recent push for digitizing vaccination records, the recent arrest of vaccination card forgers, the need for TTPass to travel internationally, and the announced QR development combined will result in a light-weight, real-time ID look-up of your vitals via the QR.

Unless your records are recorded with the MoH, the vaccination hardcopy will be as valuable as a cotton $100 note. But someone might still take it anyway.

[hover11]

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

Not really all you need is a vaxxed card and you inside

It does say a lot about us and our attitudes that we strictly obey litter, traffic and other laws so strictly in the US, but when we're in our own country not so much.

Hoover is getting left behind. Hoover is getting angry.

Nope I already have my card so makes no difference to me

If that works for you, great. But it is contrary to how you pontificated that you didn't need to participate in activities where vaccination was a requirement.

My theory: the recent push for digitizing vaccination records, the recent arrest of vaccination card forgers, the need for TTPass to travel internationally, and the announced QR development combined will result in a light-weight, real-time ID look-up of via the QR.

Unless your records are recorded with the MoH, the vaccination hardcopy will be as valuable as a cotton $100 note. Someone might take it anyway.

That theory would work if we weren't in back water Trinidad where most Government documents are still in books and not on computer systems , you getting ahead of yourself there

[adnj]

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

Not really all you need is a vaxxed card and you inside

It does say a lot about us and our attitudes that we strictly obey litter, traffic and other laws so strictly in the US, but when we're in our own country not so much.

Hoover is getting left behind. Hoover is getting angry.

Nope I already have my card so makes no difference to me

If that works for you, great. But it is contrary to how you pontificated that you didn't need to participate in activities where vaccination was a requirement.

My theory: the recent push for digitizing vaccination records, the recent arrest of vaccination card forgers, the need for TTPass to travel internationally, and the announced QR development combined will result in a light-weight, real-time ID look-up of via the QR.

Unless your records are recorded with the MoH, the vaccination hardcopy will be as valuable as a cotton $100 note. Someone might take it anyway.

That theory would work if we weren't in back water Trinidad where most Government documents are still in books and not on computer systems , you getting ahead of yourself there

Hoover is afraid of getting left behind. Hoover is getting angry.

[hover11]

And like so many things, the anti vaxxers who beat up here about their "rights" and such, will boil down like bhagi to go to go by "dey famalay" in Murica

Not really all you need is a vaxxed card and you inside

It does say a lot about us and our attitudes that we strictly obey litter, traffic and other laws so strictly in the US, but when we're in our own country not so much.

Hoover is getting left behind. Hoover is getting angry.

Nope I already have my card so makes no difference to me

If that works for you, great. But it is contrary to how you pontificated that you didn't need to participate in activities where vaccination was a requirement.

My theory: the recent push for digitizing vaccination records, the recent arrest of vaccination card forgers, the need for TTPass to travel internationally, and the announced QR development combined will result in a light-weight, real-time ID look-up of via the QR.

Unless your records are recorded with the MoH, the vaccination hardcopy will be as valuable as a cotton $100 note. Someone might take it anyway.

That theory would work if we weren't in back water Trinidad where most Government documents are still in books and not on computer systems , you getting ahead of yourself there

Hoover is afraid of getting left behind. Hoover is getting angry.

Ok guy