Some Mandeville businesses not adhering to COVID protocols
Some businesses in Mandeville have completely abandoned the sanitization process since the lifting of the mask mandate back in April. It still remains a requirement for business operators to provide handwashing stations or sanitization equipment at the point of entry of their premises for customers to use. In an investigation, done by The Monitor, nine businesses were identified that are no longer sanitizing customers. Most of these businesses were variety stores and one a pharmacy.
Deborah Samuels, a regular customer of that pharmacy said, “It nuh look good for a place like a pharmacy fi stop sanitize people. Dem a provide medication for people but at the same time dem nah do something important like that.”
An employee at one of the nine stores revealed that even before the mask mandate had been lifted, her employer had not been strict about sanitizing customers. “The thing is, my boss don’t really see the use of sanitizing, so now that things are a little bit more free, it’s even worse,” she said.
An employee of another store revealed why sanitization has stopped. “So many persons come in and out of the store every day, so it was really expensive to keep up with buying sanitizer[s],” she said.
It was also revealed that while some businesses have not completely abandoned the practice, they have become less careful about making sure that every customer is sanitized upon entry.
Another customer, Justin Clarke shared his opinion on the matter. “I think because the country has opened up more, I guess it doesn’t really seem that necessary for stores to sanitize anymore. I don’t mind still. Everyone has their own sanitizers these days so, they can sanitize themselves,” he said.
Jeffrey Simpson holds an opposite view. “It doesn’t make any sense to me. COVID is still here, and businesses need to obey the protocols. See even the [COVID] numbers going up now,” he said.
Up to the time of writing, Manchester recorded 7,836 covid cases out of Jamaica’s total 131, 980 cases. Manchester also has the highest number of cases in south-western Jamaica and the fifth highest number of cases on the island behind St Ann, St James, St Catherine and Kingston and St Andrew.
