Covid task force shuts down Sleepin bar
As its enforcement around the city continues, the Covid-19 Task Force’s enforcement team last evening swooped down on the Church Street Sleepin Casino and bar and other establishments in the Alberttown/Queenstown area.
At around 6:30 pm, the team cordoned off the area and went into the establishment. This newspaper was told that the bar was ordered closed and the casino management warned of social distancing regulations.
Sleepin Manager Clifton Bacchus told the Stabroek News yesterday that he was not at the business place at the time of the team’s visit but he had concerns on if he was being targeted, given the time of the visit.
But a Task Force official said that it has “nothing to gain” by targeting any business establishment and that ”the rules must apply to all parties”. “It is regulations to follow by everyone and we have to enforce that,” the official said.
For breaching regulations, the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) had recently issued warning letters and ordered a number of business entities closed as part of its promised stepped up enforcement.
The MovieTowne-based Hard Rock Café was one of the establishments that was issued with both a warning letter and notice of closure for its breach.
In the city, a number of restaurants and bars have remained open past the 10 pm curfew with Club Altitude on Sandy Babb Street, Giftland Mall’s The Strip and the Sleepin Casino among venues where large crowds had gathered.
Sources had last Sunday told this newspaper that while restaurants have been granted permission for outdoor dining, in keeping with COVID-19 regulations, Hard Rock was found to be in default for having in-house dining.
However, mid last week Guyana’s COVID-19 Emergency Measures were amended to allow for limited indoor dining at eating establishments.
The amendment notice stated that both indoor and outdoor dining are now permitted between the hours of 4 am and 9.30 pm. The amended section of the measure added that indoor dining is however restricted to forty per cent of the capacity of the dining area.