The tale of two conversations related to reopening of bars

This may be very hard to read for some, but I have sought to capture it as real as it gets.

Scenario #1

I have online a bar operator who will call Jay to protect his identify, welcome to the program Jay

Journalist “ The government yesterday announced that bars will re-open on May 19, 2020 but with a number of restrictions such as no more than 5 people inside, the need to wearing of mask, installation of hand wash stations and sanitizer . Do you think these measures are onerous on a small business such as yours.

Jay “  Well me glad dem decide fi mek we open d bars dem cause a plenty a we a suffa, but dem ole heap a rules deh caan work my lord“

Question “ So what changes do you think they should make”.

Jay ” I think they need to re-think the entire thing as we in Kingston don’t have any outside space so it caan work and 5 people inna bar fi 6 ft nuh mek nuh sense”

Question “ What aspect of the restrictions won’t work for a small business like yours“

Jay “ Bossy , me caan talk fi nuh body, but me can talk fi myself , when 5 man come inna d bar a buy a que and nurse it all night, how me aho get more people inside, you nuh see she dat a foolishness”

Question “ But Jay, if the man nah buy nuttin why would you not ask him to leave”

Jay “ Bossy e cum like a nuh Jamaica u live enuh, in a community how u fi tell  a man seh im fi come outta u bar, d ole community ago start look pon u away eno and may boycott u, so me nuh deh pon dat“

Question “ So what would you like changed”

Jay “Well dem need fi come sit with bar owners and mek we tell dem how d ting fi set“

 Journalist ” Did anyone consult with you”

Jay ” Not at all no one sought our advice, dem just mek dem rules and push e dung we throat”

Journalist ” There you have it folks bar owners are accusing the government of not consulting with them and putting in place restrictions that will kill their businesses”.

Scenario #2

We have online a bar ownewho will call Tom to protect his identity

Journalist “The government yesterday announced that bars will re-open on May 19, 2020 but with a number of restrictions such as no more than 5 people inside, the need to wearing of mask, installation of hand wash stations and sanitizer. What steps will you be taking to taking to work within these guidelines, which will be in place for the next two weeks.”

Tom “  I am very happy that the powers that be have listened to our cries and have taken steps to give us a chance to earn to feed our families .Me done know seh that many people are concerned that the virus will spread as a result of this, but me ago tek every step to protect my staff and my patrons. If people refuse to follow the rules, I will ask dem fi  leave“

Journalist “ Tom what are some of the things that you will be doing, to get ready”

Tom ” Well me done call d community plumber to come in and install a small sink fe me, plus me ago get two wall mount sanitizers as well. When mi heng up from d call me ago head fe de hardware fe go get d materials needed so de man can start working lata today.

Journalist ” So Tom what you think about the restrictions”

Tom “ Dem yah times nuh normal times and so me haffi try adapt, this is me livelihood and my nah go sit and watch it dry up simply because mi like some a d rules dem, dah nuh mek no sense“

Me neva expect tings fi go back to normal, so while 5 people seems small, my plan is to have an outside area since the restriction is 10 outside.  So, me can have 5 inside and 10 outside and still meet d ting“

Journalist ” But Tom, what happens when the 10 outside need more drinks”

 Tom “ Well , bossy here this, the tender will either carry it outside or we ask one man inside to go outside so d man outside can come in so we nuh violate d ting“

Journalist “ But Tom you would recognize that not ever bar owner have an outside area, so they cannot do wjhat you do”

Tom “ Before me ansa , can me ask you a question“

Journalist “ Where are you going with this,  err go ahead Tom“

Tom “ If me have space fi do dat an u nuh have space fi dweet, what would you do, not do u ting because a next man caan dweet.  Some a we mek  ten grand a night and some mek 20 grand, if I mek 10g and you mek 20, d govament must tek 5 from u and give me so we can mek equal money.

D ting is man haffi use dem head and tink bout d ting and see wha dem can do fi mek it work. U think seh govament can know weh every man need and mek a plan di dem.  Bossy a weeks now mi nuh mek a dime, so right now if a me can get 5 people dat betta dan zero a so me see it?

Me nah go mek a man stop me from eat a food and me nah go try and tell a man wha fi do either, everyman to him own oda a just so d ting set. Do wha can work within d rules, wah you ago do, keep d bar lock cuz u nuh like d new guidelines, if dah a your plan, me nuh deh pon dah wid you. U see seh me a seh bossy.

Journalist ” Tom I can see you are a thinking fellow”

Tom ” Bossy, if you caan tink fi you self and listen pure nah nah nah everyday you nah go reach no weh inna life

Journalist ” Thanks for speaking to us Tom”

Tom ” Blessings mi bredda, mi gone get ready”

What are the lessons employed by the two journalist here and did they achieve what they set out to get.

What of Tom and Jay, how was there thought process and which is most likely to suceed.

Think on these tings

Another thought provoking piece from commonsenseja

A few basic tips for re-opening the hotel sector

We must move to opening this sector very shortly and here are a few suggestions when that decision is being made.

The following assumptions used

• Average stay of each guest is 7 days
• Guest arrive on Sunday and leave on Sunday
• Mandatory 14 Quarantine cannot be applied

1. Only allow 30% occupancy at each hotel
2. Hotel to conduct rapid test on each guest on arrival
   • Any guest testing positive must be isolated in his /her room and MOH alerted
   • If symptoms developed where hospitalizations is deemed required MOH to be alerted and the steps taken to move the person from hotel room to hospital
   • Room which housed guest is to be cleaned in accordance with MOH protocols
   • Guest will be responsible to cover cost for hospitalization for period beyond the end of their vacation period. Eg if Guest checked in on Sunday for 7 days and has to leave by Wednesday, the MOH will be paid by the hotel for the difference between room and board at the hospital and the hotel nightly rate from Wednesday to Saturday night. From Sunday until the guest has had  two negative test which is the criteria for recovery, they must  pay the hospital for the cost of that service.
3. Hotel staff must be housed on site, this will allow for the following
   • Staff will be in  a sterile working environment for the entire period they are working.
   • Minimal chance of the staff picking up the virus in his/her home environment and travelling to and from work on a daily basis.
   • With only 30% guess occupancy a portion of the 70% of rooms is available to house workers in a controlled environment
4. Staff should be on site for a minimum of 21 days as follows
   • 14 days providing service for the first two set of guest and an additional 7 days where they will not service guess but would be involved only in back of the house operations.
   • Test them at the end of this period and if negative, service can be broken (they are sent home) and another set come on board.
   • Staff will be one for 21 days and off for 14 days, on a rotating basis so each staff who was laid off and still available can have earning opportunity.
   • Keep repeating this process

Bless

Returning residents, home vs state quarantine !

One April 8, 2019 under my blog post entitled What should be the GOJ approach when the ports are reopened, I made the following recommendations but added no cost.

There must be however the following actions that must be taken on arrival at the ports.

1. Mandatory Temperature checks( automatic) and anyone with a fever must be taken to a government quarantine facility.
2. Every person must be interviewed to determine if that have been in contact with an infected person but not showing signs. These people must be taken to government quarantine facility and held for minimum of two weeks and must be tested.
3. All persons who based on assessment are asked to go quarantined at home must be fitted with a GPS wrist band tracking device which will allow the MOH to track their movements to determine if they are staying at home.
4. The GOJ should procure these devices which cost about $3,000 each and have them in place prior to the opening of the ports.https://commonsenseja.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/what-should-be-the-goj-approach-when-the-ports-are-reopened/

Yesterday the government reported that 330 national will return home today and the cost of that exercise ( quarantine only) will be in the order of $64m.

I had earlier noted the following, in arriving at the cost of repatriating all our nationals overseas which was estimated at approx. 5000.

There is no way on the planet that Jamaica can afford such cost, and not only is the cost a problem but finding place to house them would mean an inordinate delay in getting of them all home.

I am again suggesting that we abandon that idea and seek to have these folks in home quarantine while assuming that 10% of those coming in will require state quarantine due to either or a combination of the following

1. The have been in contact with a confirmed case at some point in time
2. They have elevated temperature
3. Their home situation does not allow for home quarantine

I have now arrived at a cost for this and based on the numbers I used with a exchange rate of US$1 = J$140. We could see significant cost savings but following this approach , and those funds could not be redirected to helping those who are currently out of work by providing them an additional 2 weeks pay.

We would be looking at savings of over one billion Jamaica dollars if this recommendation is taken on board

Comparison under one table

Bless

How will the covid complaint office space look ?

As Jamaica and many in the Caribbean and across the world look to return work and normalcy, we at this point can accept that things will never return to what it was pre-covid.

The focus of this piece however, will be on Jamaica and will attempt to examine what needs to be taken into consideration as we begin to draw up reopening plans.

Years ago we moved away from cubicles on the office floor to a more open floor plan, as we sought to keep managers, and staff at the same level, ie avoid the widely held view that if you have a office cubicle you were somehow elevated above those without that “feature”.

In addition the open office concept allowed managers to see what was taking place on the floor and hopefully that would lead to greater levels of productivity, given you cannot now hide your computer screen. The jury is out as to whether or not that actually worked.

Here are some things I think we need to consider as we move to this phase.

1. The government as well as firms need to reach out to the engineering community to help with the layout of offices for greater levels of productivity and as such industrial engineers should be part of that discussion.
2. HVAC engineers must also be part of any task force that is being put together , I will explain more below
3. Finally safety engineers needs to be on board as well.

A few consideration for the new office space

1. Move away from open concept and have partition around every work desk of no less than 5ft tall. This provides a physical barrier between workers and in so doing there may not be a need for six ft clearance since we are not in “free” space .
2. Floor density; We must limit the number of people in each space to take into consideration the following( HVAC Engineers)
   • Carbon dioxide level likely to be on each floor/space
   • VOC Volatile Organic compound level on each floor/space
   • The air circulation rate, that is how often is the air exchanged each hour(conditioned space)
   • Fresh air intake (conditioned space)
   • The type of air filter required to clean the air and reduce spread of airborne pathogens.
3. Location of rest rooms and how are they ventilated, can pathogens get into the main circulation system .
4. Sanitation mats at all office entrances as well as rest rooms, should these be considered .
5. Hands free sanitation station vs each person having their own sanitizer.
6. Wearing of mouth and nose covering in the office space.
7. Protocols to be followed should someone become infected during this phase.
8. Tracking devices for employees while on the job, knowing where they have been while at work ( that includes going on the road at breaks etc. devices however must be left at the work place once they leave for home.
9. Break/Lunch room layout to how to incorporate social distancing in such designed. Recall while eat and talking now mask is involved

These a but a few things that are required and this cannot be done by politicians and business people, as such I would urge the government of Jamaica to get in touch the the Jamaica Institute of Engineers(JIE), The Professional Engineers Registration Board (PERB) as well as the Jamaica Society for Energy Engineers( JSEE) and get representative of these groups on board. Many engineers could be a member of all three groups.

This will give us he best chance to draft up plans to coexist with Covid-19 while staying ahead of the curve

Bless

How to bring Caribbean nationals stuck at sea home

The leadership of Caricom should meet with the leaders of all cruise-ship and coordinate the following as outlined below.

All cruise line should be encourage to move all Caribbean national stuck on various cruise ship to other cruise ships and then sail into the Caribbean waters, we can choose any Caribbean island. ( This to be coordinated by the Caricom chairman in conjunction with member states)

Once they arrive in the island the Caricom Chairman should assign various health officials from a number of islands to administer Covid test to every Caribbean national on board as the ships and anchored offshore. This will be considered day one of quarantine.

After 14 days, they should be tested again and once they are negative they should be allowed to disembark at the various ports across the Caribbean as if it were a regular cruiseship stop.

This will allows all Caribbean nationals to get home, with the only cost being borne by these countries being the administration of the two test at day 0 and day 14.

It significantly reduces the cost to the Caribbean countries to house these folks for 14 days once they get home as not even transportation needs to be provided , since their families can pick them up at the ports.

Mia Mottley and Kamina Johnson Smith, over to you.

Sailing time into the Caribbean will not be accepted as part of the quarantine period as we cannot trust these cruise ship captains, they have been found to be deceptive too often.

Another solution from Commonsenseja.

Bless