Due to a lack of social distancing, the Diego Martin branch of the West Bees Supermarket was forced to shut its doors for a few hours on Saturday.
West Bees had a few tents set up outside their establishment, but shoppers crowded under them while waiting to get inside with no social distancing, amid Covid-19 regulations.
Police Commissioner, Gary Griffith, had issued a warning to the owners on Friday after he visited and found close to 100 persons packed under a tent. Upon arriving on Saturday, Griffith said he “found customers packed together, tighter than channa in a doubles.”
The CoP said the grocery will be allowed to reopen only when it does what is required. He has promised that greater attention will be paid to increasing foot patrols in and around businesses to ensure crowd control measures are followed.
Meanwhile, Supermarket Association of Trinidad and Tobago president Rajiv Diptee said while supermarkets have been compliant, the issue lies with members of the public who have been non-compliant with the protocols issued by the Ministry of Health.
He told GML “The public has to be more responsible and take extreme caution. Overcrowding of the stores happened for a couple reasons: one being the weather as the tent that was placed outside the supermarket was not adequate to provide shelter.
“The second reason is the high level of non-compliance among the public and the high level of panic shopping because people are uncertain if the stores will remain open,” Diptee told the Sunday Express.
He renewed his call for one person per family to shop at supermarkets.
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