It has been three months since Kyiv residents could eat inside their favorite restaurants.
But as the country reopens after months of lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19, the Ukrainian capital has established new rules for restaurants’ indoor premises to open their doors.
On June 22, the Kyiv City State Administration published a document featuring a list of hygiene rules for restaurants. It includes regulations for indoor service, which has been banned since March.
Although the document does not state when indoor eateries can reopen, restaurateur Sergiy Gusovsky, who is also a member of the Kyiv City Council, announced that, starting on June 23, restaurants could reopen their indoor premises.
Reopening will be welcome news for the Kyiv restaurant industry, which has taken a beating from the quarantine, and for customers, who miss dining out.
Read more: These restaurants didn’t survive the coronavirus crisis
Here’s a list of the new rules for restaurants’ indoor premises to reopen:
- Visitors are not allowed to enter the indoor premises without an employee of the restaurant;
- Playrooms for children must remain closed;
- Celebrations, banquets and master classes of over 10 people are not allowed;
- Preparing food in open kitchens — where there is no division between the diners and the kitchen — is banned;
- There should be no buffets and self-service areas;
- And fast food restaurant personnel should hand out food, drinks, trays and cutlery at the request of the customer, as opposed to leaving them out for diners to pick up at their own volition.
Broader rules
Kyiv’s new regulatory document also contains general rules for restaurants and cafes. Now, restaurants must put down special marks or signs to help customers stay 1.5 meters apart from one another while standing in line.
Tables must also be at least 1.5 meters apart. Additionally, no more than four people can sit at one table, unless the additional diners are children under 14.
The menu should be placed at the entrance to the restaurant or at the spot where visitors place their orders, so multiple people do not touch the same menu. Restaurants are also allowed to use disposable paper menus.
Some eateries have already started putting QR-codes on the tables and at their entrances so that customers can see the menu on their smartphones.
There should also be no advertising brochures, magazines or other printed materials available for the guests.
Diners can get their orders on reusable dishes only if the restaurant has a dishwashing machine that can clean them at a high temperature. Disposable tableware is allowed, but straws and sugar should be individually packaged.
Customers should be able to use “non-contact” forms of payment.
According to the document, restaurant personnel should ensure that there are no large, dense lines or gatherings of people.
Restaurant employees must wear protective masks, special glasses or face screens and gloves. Employees are required to wash their hands every time they replace the gloves or any other protective item.
The administration of the restaurant should train the employees in how to correctly use and dispose of their protective items and ensure that there is always liquid soap, hand sanitizer and paper towels in the restaurant and its restroom facilities.
Changing restrictions
Earlier, on May 11-12, Ukraine allowed cafes and restaurants to reopen their summer terraces in the first stage of easing the quarantine restrictions.
According to the new rules, outdoor restaurants must also follow certain sanitary requirements: masks and disinfection, social distancing between customers, no lines near the restaurant and inside near the restroom area. Additionally, orders should only be served in closed packaging.
Previous false start
If the Kyiv government allows restaurants to reopen their indoor premises in the coming days, it will not be the first time.
On June 3, the government announced that it would allow them to reopen on June 5. Many restaurants in Kyiv did just that.
Then, several hours later, the restaurants had to shut down again — the authorities had decided that indoor restaurants in Kyiv and seven other oblasts must remain closed because these regions didn’t meet the government’s requirements for entering this stage of easing COVID-19 quarantine restrictions.
