AS retail owners welcomed the reopening of the sector, they are pleading with the Government to avoid another lockdown.
On Saturday, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh announced all stores will reopen on August 16.
“We ask all retail operators and owners to use this time, to use this week to get more and more of your employees vaccinated.
“We are asking the public who want to go into retail stores, because we are cognisant that school is going to open soon, you want to go to clothes stores or a jewellery store — as customers you have a duty to get vaccinated.”
The announcement came days after the Retail Association lobbied for a reopening of the sector, citing that nearly 78,000 workers were jobless and businesses were on the brink of closure.
Its president Omar Hadeed told Sunday Newsday they were grateful for the reopening, but it was just the start to a long and difficult road to recovery, to which all stakeholders involved will need to work together to ensure sustainability. On May 15, government announced a state of emergency to curb a surge in covid19 cases, which since then has seen total deaths cross 1,000 people. This followed two lockdowns without curfews since March 2020.
[caption id="attachment_905870" align="alignnone" width="735"] Retail Association president Omar Hadeed at his store Aldo, C3 Centre, San Fernando. - File photo[/caption]
Hadeed said almost 20 per cent of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) had to close permanently because of the lockdown measures but was hopeful that with 65 per cent of the sector’s workers already vaccinated, SMEs can recover.
“Key to this is the continued vaccination of the sector as this is our only way forward as global statistics suggest. A lot of us are concerned about how things will be when we actually reopen. There is a rising cost to restock and logistical increases.
“We must all ensure employee and customer safety, and everyone must remember to adhere to protocols going forward as we do not want to return to these dark days of lockdown,” Hadeed said.
Deyalsingh also urged retail stores and mall owners to encourage their employees to get vaccinated, as lower ranking staff pose a threat by not being vaccinated.
He said the vaccination rate was between 20 and 50 per cent and did not match the rate of staff at other levels, such as executive, management or administration.
“There is a disturbing trend of vaccination patterns across many countries in retail and in business. Almost 90 to 100 per cent of the managerial staff, supervisory staff tends to be vaccinated. We do not have to encourage the white-collar staff to be vaccinated.
“Where things get dangerous is at the shop floor level, the blue-collar level, this is where the sales clerks are interacting with the population. Vaccination rates at those levels tend to drop off, precipitously.”
National Lotteries Control Board operations will also restart from Monday, and Deyalsingh urged operators to maintain the health protocols
“NLCB will be opened for business, whether it is
