The Gov­ern­ment’s TT Safe Zone ini­tia­tive launch­es to­day with vac­ci­nat­ed em­ploy­ees of bars, restau­rants, gyms, the­atres, cin­e­mas, wa­ter­parks, as well as li­censed gam­ing hous­es, bet­ting pools and pri­vate mem­bers’ clubs be­ing able to open and serve vac­ci­nat­ed cit­i­zens.

Yes­ter­day, em­ploy­ees worked long hours in prepa­ra­tion for the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed open­ing.

For restau­rants, to­day will be the first time since April 29 that in-house din­ing will be per­mit­ted.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Wood­ford Cafe at Pri­ce­Plaza, in Ch­agua­nas yes­ter­day we met an elec­tri­cian check­ing the bulbs on the restau­rant’s ex­te­ri­or, while oth­er em­ploy­ees cleaned its in­te­ri­or.

Part-own­er Mar­tin Hatem was al­so there to over­look prepa­ra­tions.

While he did not know what to ex­pect in terms of turnout, he was still look­ing for­ward to the re­sump­tion of in-house ser­vice be­cause busi­ness, he said, has been es­sen­tial­ly non-ex­is­tent.

Hatem said he will ad­here to the Gov­ern­ment’s poli­cies, but he did ex­press con­cern about the vac­ci­nat­ed-on­ly en­trance pol­i­cy for in-house din­ing.

“I am not in agree­ment with the pol­i­cy but it is what the Gov­ern­ment wants to call a safe zone, so we are will­ing to try it and see how it works,” he said.

Say­ing it’s been very dif­fi­cult to keep afloat fi­nan­cial­ly, with on­ly curb­side and take­out op­tions, he said many restau­rants will be forced to shut their doors if in-house din­ing is pro­hib­it­ed again.

Over in Mar­aval, staff at the Blue Star Din­er came out from 10 am yes­ter­day to be­gin prepa­ra­tions.

As they worked, all mem­bers of staff, in full uni­form, wore wrist­bands in­di­cat­ing that they were vac­ci­nat­ed.

Be­fore dis­cussing the din­er’s plans for to­day, Gen­er­al Man­ag­er De­bra Find­lay sought to make it clear that “Staff who are not vac­ci­nat­ed, will not be at work.”

“We are ex­cit­ed to come back to work. It’s been ba­si­cal­ly 15 months, so we are very ex­cit­ed to get back to work,” she said.

Sim­i­lar prepa­ra­tions were un­der­way, from 7 am, at Trot­ters and Bu­zo Os­te­ria Ital­iana.

Ac­cord­ing to the Op­er­a­tions Co­or­di­na­tor of Trent Restau­rants, Vic­tor Ray­mond, vac­ci­nat­ed mem­bers of staff were ex­cit­ed and men­tal­ly pre­pared to re­turn to work.

He ex­pressed con­fi­dence that every­thing was in place at both restau­rants to meet the gov­ern­ment’s safe zone poli­cies.

“It’s sim­ple. It’s sim­ple. If you’re not vac­ci­nat­ed, you can’t en­ter. You have to iden­ti­fy your­self as a safe zone, so you have the safe zone at the en­trance,” he said.

He added that the take­out op­tion will re­main avail­able for un­vac­ci­nat­ed cus­tomers.

In San Fer­nan­do, 519 restau­rant at C3 Cen­tre was ful­ly pre­pared to re­sume in-house ser­vice.

“We have every­thing in place to fol­low all the pro­to­cols. All our staff is ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed. We will not be sell­ing al­co­hol—it’s on­ly to go. We al­so have curb­side pick­up for those who are not vac­ci­nat­ed,” gen­er­al man­ag­er Kath­leen Sam­my said.

With gyms re­open­ing for the first time since late April, prepa­ra­tions were al­ready com­plete at Evo­lu­tion Fit­ness, in Ch­agua­nas, by the time Guardian Me­dia ar­rived.

Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Rhon­dell Brown said all equip­ment was in place and san­i­tized, while a sys­tem to en­sure the gym does not be­come over­crowd­ed was in ef­fect.

He said, as for now, there will be no time lim­it for cus­tomers be­cause there was am­ple space on the three floors of the gym.

“I think I’ll be up at 3 am just an­tic­i­pat­ing the cur­few, so as soon as 5 am hits, I’ll head out to work. I’m re­al­ly ex­cit­ed be­cause this is my zone, this is my ca­reer. I will be thrilled to start back to work,” Brown said.

Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed sev­er­al bars in cen­tral and west Trinidad but ob­served no prepa­ra­tions tak­ing place.

Un­der TT Safe Zone pol­i­cy, al­co­hol is not al­lowed to be con­sumed at bars or restau­rants.

Protest against Safe Zones

And as busi­ness­es pre­pared for the TT Safe Zone launch to­day, eight peo­ple, in­clud­ing the leader of the First Wave Move­ment Umar Ab­dul­lah protest­ed around the sa­van­nah yes­ter­day.

Ab­dul­lah, with a Trinidad and To­ba­go flag in hand, said the group was there to pray for the na­tion and its cit­i­zens and lead­ers. Ab­dul­lah said peo­ple ought to push back against the Safe Zone sys­tem.

“It’s go­ing to fail. Busi­ness­es and the en­ter­tain­ment in­dus­try will be re­ly­ing on a small group of peo­ple to sus­tain their busi­ness­es. They won’t be able to pay their rent. They won’t be able to pay their work­ers,” he said.

Ac­cord­ing to the Gov­ern­ment’s TT Safe Zone pol­i­cy, on­ly vac­ci­nat­ed peo­ple (12 years and over) are al­lowed to en­ter safe zones. They must present proof of vac­ci­na­tion and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Busi­ness­es must al­so have TT Safe Zone sig­nage at all en­try points.

Own­ers and op­er­a­tors of busi­ness­es found in breach of safe zone reg­u­la­tions face a fixed penal­ty fine of $25,000, while cus­tomers are sub­ject to a fixed penal­ty fine of $5,000.