Panama okays sidewalk resteraunts

Panama Mayor José Luis Fábrega has confirmed that his administration will extend the permits for restaurants to use sidewalks and parking lots until June once the Ministry of Health (Minsa) allows them to return to receive diners in their premises.

“Occupying these spaces generates more expenses, but it is an alternative that some businesses will be able to use, and we hope that other municipal administrations in the country will take similar measures,”  said Domingo De Obaldia who heads the Panama Restaurant Association.

The restaurant segment is one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. with more than 2,000 closed since March 2020, and the dismissal of at least 20,000 workers.

De Obaldia said that home delivery generates only  20% of the sales that they previously registered, and sometimes restaurants end up spending more money than the amount they receive for the transactions achieved. .

Jean-Pierre Leignadier, president of the PanamaChamber of Commerce, commented that “face-to-face service in restaurants has been closed for much of the last 10 months. This represents the core business of this activity, which has not received any type of support or economic relief measures that allow them to maintain the more than 35 000 jobs and give continuity to their operations, it is necessary that they be allowed to open as soon as possible under biosecurity measures and risk management ”.

Since the opening of the restaurants at the end of September last year, these places have implemented measures to be able to operate, such as the two-meter distance between the tables and the use of screens, among others that limit the number of customers that can be served.

But in a short time, they were ordered to close and the investment made has not been able to be compensated.

For de Obaldia, the situation to which they have been subjected is unfair when statistics indicate that contagions between staff and customers were low and they occurred due to factors unrelated to the operation of restaurants such as overcrowding in mass transport and contact with people who were not related to the operation.