She served the hookah without a permit and ignored customer checks

Closing 24 cafes for violating Corona measures in Dubai

Dubai Municipality has intensified its inspection campaigns on cafes to ensure the highest level of compliance.

Photography: Ahmed Arditi

Dubai Municipality has violated 81 cafes, and closed 24 of them, since the cafes were allowed to restart their activities, as part of a package of precautionary measures and measures.

The municipality clarified to “Emirates Today” that since the reopening of the smoking areas in cafes and the permit for smoking hookah, the municipality has been keen to intensify its inspection campaigns and visits to ensure the highest level of compliance, as 2,255 inspection visits have been carried out, resulting in violation of 81 sites, and closed Of them 24 as of yesterday.

It stated that its inspectors had detected a package of violations committed by cafes during the past period, most notably the provision of hookah service without a permit, failure to inspect café-goers before entering, the expiration of the service permit, the expiration of tobacco products, failure to operate the ventilation and air conditioning system, inappropriate ventilation, and failure The presence of physical spacing and spaces between tables, allowing overcrowding inside the site, and the presence of individuals under the age of 18 within the smokers' area, in addition to lack of commitment to health practices, such as the participation of more than one person in smoking one hookah, and the use of multi-use hoses instead of single-use.

The municipality has obligated cafes in the emirate to take precautionary measures that should be followed when reopening places designated for smoking and providing hookah, starting from July 18, the most important of which is the commitment of hookah service employees to wash hands before and after service delivery, and to measure the temperature of employees, workers, and visitors before entering the facility area, They show symptoms of temperature higher than 37.5 when entering the site, and the facility’s management should allocate an isolation room, and establish procedures for dealing with suspected or confirmed cases of "Covid-19", in addition to disinfection procedures.

The municipality stressed the need to use single-use hookah hoses only, wash and deeply disinfect the hookah, and change the water used after each user, and it is not allowed to test the hookah by employees before submitting to the customer, and the periodicity of hygiene and disinfection must be increased in smoking areas.

The list of requirements also included the necessity to provide containers for special polluted waste at all main entrances, and in common areas for medical waste (masks and gloves), to remove them frequently, to provide hand sanitizers in different areas of the site, and to commit to providing ventilation systems and air purification according to the requirements of Dubai Municipality. Valet parking services are also permitted for all establishments, while ensuring that the preventive measures specified for this service are followed, and to ensure that a safe physical distance of two meters is maintained throughout the entire café, restaurant or facility, and the need to ensure that there is a distance of two meters between each table, with a maximum of Five seats per table in smoking area.

Precautionary measures

The precautionary measures that should be followed when reopening the places designated for smoking and serving hookah included not allowing customers to be in the smoking area for more than three hours, making sure that visitors sterilize their hands upon arrival, and using disinfected plastic tools (dishes, cups, or packages) or that can be disposed of. Them, and individually packaged.

The municipality called for encouraging the use of electronic payment methods, publishing precautionary measures and requirements among employees and visitors using various communication methods, and ensuring that training is provided to hookah employees to maintain preventive disinfection.

- Dubai Municipality carried out 2,255 inspection visits to cafes.

81

A cafe that Dubai Municipality has disobeyed since allowing cafes to restart.

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