Bar owners ignore COVID-19 rules
(CNS): Police have warned a number of bar owners and managers that they will be prosecuted after a weekend in which the COVID-19 protection measures appear to have been ignored in many places. Over the holiday weekend the Prevention, Control and Suppression of COVID-19 Regulations currently in place were flouted and officers met with hostility from customers when they spoke with the mangers about the breaches.
“We are gravely concerned at the level of disregard being shown by the staff and patrons at certain establishments,” said Superintendent Pete Lansdown. “While most bars and restaurants have been complying with the regulations, the few that do not can potentially put the entire community at risk.”
He added that the RCIPS will continue to actively enforce the rules and will prosecute offenders as well as submit the details of any breaches to the Liquor Licensing Board. Anyone convicted of breaching the current regulations are liable to a fine of $250 for each offense under the licensing law. In addition, under the suppression regulations they are liable to a fine of $1,000 or six months behind bars.
Over the course of the long weekend, officers had responded to several incidents and 25 people were arrested for various offenses, including DUI and other traffic offenses, illegal gaming and two for assault.
But officers were focused this weekend on bars that were breaching the regulations. On Saturday night at a bar on Seymour Drive in George Town more that 200 people were gathered on the premises, most not wearing masks and not maintaining social distancing.
Police also saw staff members at the location not wearing masks, and when they went inside they found customers seated inside at the bar paying for drinks, which is another violation of the regulations.
When officers tried to speak with the owner of the bar, several customers became aggressive towards the officers and refused to comply with instructions. More police attended the location and the owner was warned for intended prosecution for the breaches.
Soon afterward, officers went to an outdoor restaurant and bar on West Bay Road, where once again several hundred people were breaching social distancing regulations. The manager of the establishment was spoken to, informed of the breaches, and warned for intended prosecution.
Just after midnight on Monday morning police attended a bar on Shamrock Road, where they observed over 200 people gathered on the property, mingling freely without masks and not maintaining social distancing. While the establishment had limited the number of people inside the bar, officer saw staff members inside not wearing masks. The manager of the bar was spoken to and warned for intended prosecution for the breaches.
Acting Superintendent Brad Ebanks said,“While we understand that Cayman is in a relatively safe position worldwide, and that persons are anxious to socialise after the extended period of curfew and restrictions, we implore upon everyone in the community to minimise risks, continue to observe the regulations that remain in place, and stay safe.”
Under the current regulations in place on Grand Cayman, restaurants and bars can offer both indoor and outdoor service but tables must be at least six feet apart and people seated at least three feet apart.
In restrooms and waiting areas, social distancing of at least six feet must be maintained and customers and staff must wear masks or cloth face coverings. Servers and front of house staff must wear masks or cloth face coverings while serving customers, including outdoors. Dancing and karaoke are still banned, though they are expected to be permitted by Sunday, 19 July.
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Category: Business, Crime, Food and Drink, Police
‘outdoor restaurant and bar on West Bay Road’ which is owned by the son of a well connected (and untouchable it seems) prominent politician. What’s the betting that the square root of zero happens to them?
Just another day in the whacky private sector. CIG to the rescue.
What needs to change is the age limit to purchase liquor to 21. Nothing but lil children be at these places and they have no self control. Also not only bars is the problem. Have u seen GT on a Friday? These Jamaicans are ridiculous lol! But that’s what u get thinking ppl that have jo respect for their own country will respect urs. Smh
You’re just not making any sense right now. What do you use to know the amount of Jamaicans in GT on Friday…..please dont say observation.
Old, bitter and racist.
All you fannies and whiners need to put on your mask and STFU.
Jeez. How many did we have hospitalized? It was here well before lockdown. If you think otherwise, you are naïve and gullible.
For most people bars, churches, Beaches, and just going out is more fun when there are more people around. Not gonna change. All Viruses target those people in those situations. Also not gonna change. The only real choices are living without other people around or living with the virus. Everyone around the world has tried the first one. The more forward thinking countries are now doing the last one. And yes that means one out of a thousand are dying from it. About the same as dying from everything else. It is still your personal choice. Unless your in a place like Cayman where it is one mans choice for all.
I have always struggled with the idea of reopening the bars with Covid19 regulations.
It’s just plain unachievable in that environment.
The main reason for going out to the bars is to drink, socialize and in some instances dance. It’s suppose to be a destressing, let’s be merry moment.
So just imagine you have a mask on and you have to annoyingly get it out of the way to sip a drink and put it back on. Imagine you are six feet away from someone with music playing and you guys trying to communicate with masks on? 🤷♂️
Imagine you started getting tipsy from drinking, because you can’t police drink limitations for sure, and then you started asking for a carona without the virus? 🤷♂️ At that point all alerts have started to become not so important because you started to feel “nice”.
So I assume the government was forced to open the bars, mainly on an economic reason, and perhaps the difficulty in justifying how a restaurant and bar can be opened but not a bar?
My point is it’s hard to manage these regulations by the bar owners because of the environment as described above and that they will simply lose business because it will be a turnoff by patrons.
I don’t think this type of situation can be policed and enforced for what it is. It’s either the bars remain open and accept the possible outcomes or shut them down.
Prosecution, prosecution, blah, blah, blah!!. Bullshit! They’ve been warned over and over. Gov’t gave them a chance to re-open and they’re abusing it, putting peoples’ health at risk. Shut them down again until all testing has completed, with hopefully no positive cases.
You want a drink? Buy your cases and bottles and stay home and get wasted.! Just don’t bring it on the roads!!
But there is no COVID to speak of in Cayman. Let’s all move on.
3 active cases and no positives for 7 days.
The borders are closed.
Let’s not enforce rules just for the sake of rules.
The rules aren’t needed anymore. Stop buying into the media machine in the US and relax.
Not to mention nobody in the hospital since April.
Anyone stop to think if the rules/laws even make sense anymore?
Name and shame them so the sensible ones can avoid them!
Clearly these bar owners cannot operate within the law during the pandemic.
Fine them definitely, but it would be best for the Liquor Control Board to suspend their licenses until coronavirus is eliminated from every country that might send us tourists within the next few years.
Look at which bars in which districts and which clientele….no surprises there.
The misbehavior is mimicked from what is happening in the USA. And since we are infested by those people, the poorly educated southerners which are all Trump supporters, the RCIPS should join forces with Immigration to have them arrested and summarily deported to their paradise of freedom, when they can enjoy their equals their fight against the face masks, their orange president, and the coronavirus, which is already past the 3 million cases.
Rednecks don’t drink Redstripe. Your fascination with Trump has clearly messed with your ability to observe rationally.
This is going to ruin it for those establishments that are abiding by the rules.
I’ve visited a couple places now, the staff have been respectfully reminding customers to put on their masks and giving hand sanitiser to customers.
These places should have their license revoked or told they can’t open for a week or two, the best way to get these idiot owners to listen is take money out of their pockets and soon you’ll see them making sure they abid by the rules.
Oh as for the bar on Shamrock, isn’t it owned by firemen and already had a viral video on social media with a bar fight on the weekend?
Going to bars w/ out masks & w/ out social distancing puts family members at risk ( children, parents, elderly) as when you go home you can be infecting these people.
Gold star for the moron that thought that intoxication and social distancing would work well together.
Yeah, Yeah.. I hear all the holier than thous.
You know who the real clowns are? The void-of-common-sense morons that thinks wearing designer cloth masks and surgical masks, and even hoodies and even XXXX handkerchiefs that have been worn for days and weeks with gaping holes on each side of the faces, then moved on to their chins or foreheads as they leave the grocery store where they have been molesting all the vegetables and produce with their hands after 100’s of others did the same, then dialing their code in onto the Covid-19 infected CC machine gloveless..
Then going home and eating jerk chicken from the jerk stand with those same hands.
Buuuut hay!! we socialed-distanced and kept 6 feet away! (Because deadly viruses obey the 6 foot rule)
Then, opening restaurants with XXXX fans going and AC to make sure all the Covid is spread evenly, while having to ware your stupid masks ONLY when entering and going to the bathroom? WTF How $#$#%%^&^&% STUPID can you possibly be?
That THOSE procedures, is what stopped a deadly pandemic in Cayman.
I have news for YOU, you’re a bunch koolaid drinking blistering imbeciles with the intellectual capacity of a pigeon.
The good news is we learned one thing is for certain, is should we REALLY get a deadly disease, very few of you will survive it from sheer stupidity.
Maybe you should have left on those flights if you hate jerk chicken and koolaid so much. Digusting racist shit head.
Hey 4:16- please skip your mask and come up to the U.S. and hang out for awhile and report back and let us know if masks are stupid. I live in an area where Covid was raging in March and masks were mandated and our numbers steadily declined. NONE of us would even think of going out in public without a mask.Maybe you should be grateful that Cayman has been so fortunate not to have extreme cases of Covid & while doing that continue to wear a mask. BTW- I throw mine out after each day & use a new one.
So you contribute to pollution?
Wash or put your mask on hot sun for an hour and it would be good to wear again.
Please don’t start with “..there’s no scientific evidence..» Humanity managed to survive on common sense for millennias.
I work in a field that my mask gets spit, blood droplets and other bodily fluids, but thank you for your suggestion, but my masks need to be only worn once.
Had no business re-opening they to begin with.
This is incredibly frustrating. While I can appreciate the desire to return to normal life, the patrons and owners of these establishments are selfish. Everyone (well, most) on this island have sacrificed and make tough decisions for the benefit of all – this hard work could be wiped out by people out partying carelessly. As a parent of four children, I will raise hell if school can’t reopen normally because of idiots out drinking.
Anyone going to revoke any licenses? Nah, we not enforcin nuttin. Not yesterday, not today …
Nuttin!
We should have used more of the lockdown fireside chats to help people quit the unhealthy habit of smoking. The CMO mentioned it a couple times, but there are still lots of people smoking everywhere. Most restaurants/bars have resumed the tone deaf practice of putting ash trays on every table as if the Tobacco Law 2008 was just a bad dream. The offending should have their T&Bs revoked per the Regulations 2010, especially those using public thoroughfares (schedule 12.2e) as their natural smoke ventilation channels (Pani/Karoo/Camana Bay). Time’s up on the cancer sticks.
http://www.dci.gov.ky/documents/2019-06-13-06-04-48-The-Tobacco-Law-2008-Law-18-of-2008—The-Tobacco-Regulations-2010.PDF
Not your business though if ppl want to smoke and smoking isn’t allowed inside only outside!
Ppl who smoke should go sit in their PRIVATE cars with the windows up and enjoy their poison. Don’t pollute the air I have to be in. It’s a shared necessity, be mindful of everyone personal situation.
Actually, it is if that establishment hasn’t familiarized themselves with their legal obligation to provide a smoke free environment. Leaving out the littering, the horked loogies, and the 90 years of medical data proving how stupid it is – the degradation of air quality extends beyond the selfish user to those non-participants in the immediate area, that wish you to desist in 2020. That’s an intrusion into our space and our enjoyment. Maybe read the 12 year old Law and 10 year old Regulations that are supposed to define that activity here – including restricting where and how outdoors, licensed establishments, common areas, and in public places. To illustrate, imagine if someone came up to you as you lay peacefully on the beach and starting arcing their urine onto you, your clothes, your towel, telling you to calm down, go in the ocean and wash it all off, or if you don’t like it – move. Outrageous right? This is how many smokers behave and/or make non-smokers feel. There are rules, impacts, and consequences that are supposed to regulate a variety of activities and keep the peace. We need to start enforcing them, especially given the time we are living in.
If you don’t like cigarette smoke you can sit inside. However, smoking outside is allowed.
Very happy to hear that the idiots are going to be prosecuted. Hopefully the liquor licensing board will also suspend the relevant licenses until the prosecutions occur and then cancel the licenses altogether in cases in which the idiot owners are convicted.
No, we don’t need those types coming to other bars.
Total morons, no sense and no respect for this or what the leaders are trying to achieve. Close the bar they are responsible after all. Money over lives yet again. Idiots.
This is an easy fix
Create social bubbles around each bar with patrons choosing their location.
Bring in beds, food, and clothing with adequate liquor supplies and lock the bars, employees and patrons inside for 2-3 weeks.
Walla!
All fixed😂😂😂😂
Voila….
Bloody French!
I think it was a typo, he meant Wally
This is not much of a surprise. I would guess that in general, people who go to bars and stay late rank somewhat low on the compliance scale, and equally poor in difficult behaviours.
TLDR: Few people give a squat who hit the liquor hard.
I don’t think we are yet ready for bars to be open. They are almost certainly the single most dangerous nexus of virus transfer (and whatever else contagious that is going around).
In Cayman Islands everyone knows that if your Caymanian laws are optional. Add that to the fact that law enforcement is a joke and you get a generation that has no respect for the law. As usual they report on it instead of arresting anyone.
CNS: “Warned for intended prosecution” means they will be prosecuted.
FYI the younger generation having no respect for law & order is a worldwide issue not just a Caymanian issue.
Have you ever lived anywhere else? Or do you just trust the news?
#drunklivesmatter
At last a cause I can get behind. Hic.
Lamo!!!!
Who is policing the churches?
I’m assuming they think Jesus is
coastguard?
There are always those clowns who think they have the funniest story, joke, whatever who invade your personal space and spit while they talk. Sad really, the bartenders and the other alcoholic patrons are their only friends, so they were celebrating seeing each other. Hopefully, they got it out of their system, but I’m not convinced as they were usually pretty sloppy pre-covid anyways.
It’s the idea that there can/should be hugging and kissing everywhere, with zero distancing, that will find us back in lockdown. We are just abnormally lucky there aren’t more people presenting, and admitted to the hospital. Let’s not take that for granted.
We are locked down from the outside world. What does it matter what happens internally? We have successfully created our own bubble. Time for a little action and satisfaction.
1:38 well aren’t you dumb
Idjut
Covid19 is the one virus I don’t have to worry about in Cayman. How many people you know who have it? Let me guess. None. Live and let live.
So if you are all not worried about the silly thing called Covid open your borders and let us all come down without any restrictions. What’s the big deal? It’s just the flu, right?
I almost agree with you. Can we wait a couple more weeks before the orgy?
Been happening, yet still no Corona
So we locked down for nothing? Should we go back to curfews?
Can patrons now sit at the bar ??
yes. But 3 feet apart.
What size of foot? I wear a 5.
The problem is they never got out of the habit of drinking as we kindly kept all the liquor stores open since the start of covid as they were deemed an essential service.
So if the liquor stores were closed we’d all be free from this addiction by now? I’m not sure that’s how it works. But perhaps I’ve had one too many.