Two of Greece’s minister conducted an inspections restaurants to check whether tables and chairs have been installed at a safety distance to contain the spread of the coronarivus once such facilities re-open again.
Development minister Adonis Georgiadis wore a face shield and deputy minister Nikos Papathanasis a face mask.
They were accompanied by the President of the General Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen, Merchants of Greece (GSEVEE) and the Mayor of Kallithea.
Armed with a tape measure, they put the end tab at one table end, pulled out the tape until they reached the end of the next table. For a real life situation, some form the inspectors pretended to be customers frozen on their chairs, while they were enjoying their dinner. Exactly like in real life.
After several probes, they found out that a meter is as long as 100 cm and 1.5 m equals 150 centimeters.
At the end, they approved the new rules that need to be applied in order to allow a restaurant to operate at maximum possible capacity given that the coronaviruses will most likely keep flying around for some time still.
Of course, the study of rules will continue so that restaurants will acquire at least 80% of the capacity they had before the pandemic crisis started, a statement said.
Restaurants, cafes and bars are scheduled to open on June 1 and thus to accept customers only in their outdoors spaces. However, the required safety distance between tables deprives the facilities of a significant amount of their capacity. It should be noted that not all of such facilities have plenty of outdoors space.
The government is reportedly considering to allow the use also of the enclosed areas under certain preconditions and even allow them to open before June.
In a statement issued after the inspection, the ministry said that “the effort is to give more vital space not only outside the dining areas but also inside, with special features of natural lighting and ventilation and operation as a semi-outdoor space without air conditioning.”
As far as the outdoor areas is concerned, the ministry is in contact with municipalities so that business owners can expand the public space they occupy without paying extra charges to the local authorities.
Εxpansion of the tables can be done with special attention to the possibility of uninterrupted passage for persons with disabilities, pedestrians and citizens in wheelchairs, not only on the sidewalk and other public places but also on the street.
