Despite government guidance and efforts by bar owners to put in place safety measures, customers and staff have failed to take even the simplest measures to prevent distribution – especially if customers were intoxicated, researchers found.
With a few restaurants for indoor dining in places like New York and Portland, many American business owners are working to make the experience as safe as possible – something the Scottish researchers find may not be so easy.
Following an exclusion in the UK, bars in Scotland were allowed to reopen in July under new guidelines, including keeping groups of customers at least one meter, (a little over three feet), thus sitting and requiring all customers that the staff must wear the face. coverings.
Niamh Fitzgerald, a professor at the University of Stirling in Scotland, and colleagues visited 29 pubs to see how these safety measures work in practice.
“It was essentially about understanding, what are the risks and how successful are our pubs and pubs in managing the risks?” says Fitzgerald.
Security measures foiled
The team found that staff did not wear face masks throughout, while some lowered their masks to talk to customers, which may have defeated the purpose.
While most facilities were able to restructure their layout to accommodate a distance of one meter between tables, many people still had problems with overcrowding.
‘It was very difficult for them to completely eliminate the so-called’ bottlenecks’. That is why there were narrow areas in most rooms, whether at the entrances, or in corridors or in toilets, where it was difficult for customers to get close to each other, ”said Fitzgerald.
One facility covered the bar counter with black and yellow tape and a warning to stay away, but customers still crowded around the counter.
“None of the patrons acknowledged that the band was there,” the researchers wrote.
A big part of the risk the team perceived was at night when customers were drinking. The researchers note that alcohol use can affect a person’s hearing, vision and judgment, making it physically more difficult to comply with safety precautions. It can also lower inhibitions, leading to people simply caring less about compliance.
The team saw people jumping from table to table, touching each other and singing or shouting.
Some customers made new friends in unexpected places.
“Two women from different groups … bumped into each other outside the toilet and started screaming and hugging and jumping together,” the team wrote. “They then went into the toilets and went into a cubicle together. They then saw them washing their hands for about two seconds when they left, despite signs that were everywhere to recommend a 20-second hand wash. “
The team described how a heavily drunk woman asks an attractive waiter to take a photo with her. He is obliged, after which she kisses him on the cheek and thanks him.
In all but one case, staff could not stop such behavior, Fitzgerald noted. “We found that most of them did not even try.”
In an industry where the customer has always been right, it can be difficult for staff to determine the law regarding coronavirus precautions.
In interviews with business owners, many told the researchers that they were used to intoxicated people.
“I think the degree of intervention is likely – at least in Scotland – when people are very drunk and disorderly,” Fitzgerald said. “While the kind of drunkenness where such behavior occurs is at a stage where people are too friendly; they just have fun. These are not the situations staff have had to intervene with in the past.”
“There is a new expectation of behavior that has not really adjusted to the customers or the staff,” she added.
Mitigating risk
Fitzgerald believes that bars may mitigate some risk by communicating clearly about expectations and trying to create an atmosphere of ‘self-policing’ among customers. Although pubs, unlike places like grocery stores or retail stores, are social spaces, attempts to make them less can result in fewer customers.
Governments can help eliminate risks through mitigation measures, such as curfew arrangements, Fitzgerald said. After a major outbreak in August, linked to more than 20 pubs and restaurants in the Scottish city of Aberdeen, researchers noted that Scotland had tightened its guidelines. The country has forced the collection of customer information for contract tracing and the ban on background music in venues to prevent people from shouting or leaning to hear each other.
Of course, there is no way to eliminate risk completely.
‘We’re really looking at the timing, the transmission rate is low enough so that we can tolerate this level of risk and we are confident that if there is a transfer, that we can detect and detect it and that we can handle it without it being a getting bigger problem? says Fitzgerald.
Many business owners know all too well that to remain financially devastating during the pandemic.
“I suppose governments may need to think about what support is available so that they do not feel compelled to open up if they do not think they can work safely,” she added.