Additional rules for hospitality operators effective Aug. 10, 2020

Since August 10, 2020, a new emergency ordinance with regulations to prevent further spread of coronavirus/COVID-19 has been in effect. This emergency ordinance incorporates all measures announced by the Cabinet on August 6, 2020.

For hospitality operators, some additional rules are particularly important.

The following always applies to eating and drinking establishments, regardless of the number of visitors:

  • Visitors must make reservations in advance or upon arrival;
  • Upon arrival, visitors' health is verified; they are asked if they show signs of illness from COVID-19.
    These are the known symptoms such as fever, nasal cold, sore throat, coughing, sneezing, etc.
    If it is found that these symptoms are present then the person who has these symptoms should not be admitted to the food and beverage establishment.
  • Visitors will be placated. That is, they are assigned a seat.

This also applies to outdoor terraces. 

Register contact information visitors

Furthermore, operators of eating and drinking establishments and an associated outdoor terrace are obliged to ask (or have asked) all visitors to make their contact data available and to consent to the processing and transfer of that data for the purpose of conducting any source and contact investigation by the Public Health Service.

It concerns the following data:

  • full name;
  • date, arrival time and assigned seat of the visit;
  • email address;
  • phone number;
  • consent to making those data available to the GGD for the purpose of a source and contact investigation.

To record placements (assigned seating), it is sufficient to note the table number, for example, or otherwise record the placements.

The data may not be used for other purposes and can only be requested by the regional GGD. Eating and drinking establishments must keep the data for 14 days and then destroy it.

Full emergency ordinance

Of course, all other provisions of the emergency ordinance also apply to hospitality operators. The complete emergency regulation with all measures can be found, along with an explanation, on the website of the Safety Region.