Operating your business at Alert Le vel3

Stopping the spread of COVID-19 requires all businesses to trade in a contactless way. The Delta variant is highly infectious and can spread from people simply walking past each other. So, businesses should take further precautions to operate safely.

This includes employees and any visitors and customers wearing face coverings (such as masks), keeping a record of visits and ensuring people keep at least 2-metres physical distance.

Working in a contactless way

At Alert Level 3, most businesses need to ensure there is no contact with customers and 2-metres physical distancing needs to be in place.

Ordering and payment should be contactless – online or over the phone where possible.

Most goods should be delivered in a contactless way to the customer’s doorstep. Where deliveries can’t happen, customers can receive goods in a contactless pick-up area or drive-through and face coverings should be worn by staff and customers. Unfortunately, if your business involves close physical contact with your customers, it cannot open during Alert Level 3.

Putting good hygiene measures in place

The hygiene measures we need to put in place for businesses to operate at Alert Level 3 should all be familiar:

• Wash and dry hands frequently – soap and water is preferable to hand sanitiser. Remember to always cough or sneeze into your elbow

• Stay home if you are sick – this applies to everyone. People with any cold or flu symptoms should contact Healthline or their GP and be tested for COVID-19 as soon as possible

• If an employee has been asked to get a COVID-19 test, they must stay home until they get a negative result. If they cannot work from home, there may be financial support available so they can continue to get paid

• Clean surfaces – regularly and with a disinfectant

• Maintain appropriate physical distancing. Make sure employees keep 1-metre apart and 2-metres from customers. Also ensure customers stay 2-metres apart, including when waiting in line to pick up a contactless order. If your business is allowed customers on site and physical distancing is difficult, you may need to implement a “one-in, one-out” policy. Employers and employees should work together to understand how these measures can be implemented well.

Recording contacts (contact tracing)

At Alert Level 3, it’s important we have strong contact tracing ability. Businesses should keep an updated record of people who enter their premises. They should ensure that a copy of a QR code for the business is displayed in a prominent place at or near the main entrance or offer visitors a way to manually sign in.

They should record entry and exit times for workers and visitors like contractors. This needs to include names, times and phone numbers. For example:

• A packhouse should record when staff arrive and leave, and any maintenance staff that visit the site, plus their contact details

• A tradie needs to record the date and time they arrive and leave a customer’s home and their customer’s contact details.

All businesses must be sure to make, and keep, their contact records in a safe and secure way.

Wage subsidy applications

Applications for the initial two-week August 2021 Wage Subsidy close at 11.59pm Thursday 2 September. Outstanding applications will continue to be processed, even after the initial Wage Subsidy closes for new applications.

Applications for a second Wage Subsidy open at 9:00am Friday 3 September. This is available for all businesses and self-employed people who have or predict at least a 40% decline in their revenue from 31 August to 13 September 2021.

Thank you small business owners

Thank you for adapting to the rules and helping us stamp out COVID-19. We appreciate how hard this continues to be. It takes all of us to stop Delta.

Got questions? Find out more at Covid19.govt.nz/level3business