Table for 4 and no more - dining in the 'new normal'

Restaurants will be allowed to serve dine-in patrons from May 4 onwards with a maximum table capacity of four.

All patrons must also have their names, MyKad number, phone number and temperature recorded.

According to guidelines provided by the National Security Council (NSC), tables must be separated by two metres.

Business owners must also supply alcohol-based hand sanitisers and handwashing facilities.

They are also encouraged to use biodegradable single-use utensils and cleaning agents which contain sodium hypochlorite (bleach).

These guidelines apply to restaurants, hawker centres and permanent road-side food stalls.

The four-to-a-table rule and registration of patrons rule do not apply to food trucks and temporary road-side food stalls.

The guidelines do not mandate twice daily disinfection for the abovementioned business premises.

Meanwhile, all previously closed wet markets, pasar pagi (morning markets) and pasar tani (farmers’ market) will be reopened on May 4 with social distancing rules and mandatory recording of body temperature of staff.

Some wet markets, such as the Kuala Lumpur wholesale market, will not be allowed to operate 24 hours unlike during the pre-movement control order (MCO) period.

In general, customers are allowed to visit wet markets between 6am to 6pm while the pasar pagi and pasar tani can only accept customers between 7am and 11am.

Additionally, pasar pagi and pasar tani stalls must operate on a turn-based basis to reduce the number of stalls and all stalls must be separated by two metres.

All markets need to be disinfected once the operating hours were over.

All sundry shops and mini-markets are required to limit the number of patrons and encourage cashless transactions.  - Mkini