Having a covid safe plan

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COVID-19 Safe Plan

Venues in NSW must have a COVID-19 Safety Plan for each food and drink area. There should be no contact between customers or staff from different food and drink areas. You can either: • Use the COVID-19 Safety Plan: restaurants and cafes (PDF, 232.97 KB). NOTE: this safety plan incorporating new compliance measures for restaurants and cafes will be in force from 12:01am Friday 24 July. • Develop your own plan to address the checklist of matters required on this page.  

Updating your plan

You may need to update the plan in the future, as restrictions and advice changes.The plan available on this page will always be the most recent.If you have registered as a COVID Safe business online and you update your safety plan, you do not need to register again.

Checklist of matters to be addressed in your COVID-19 Safety Plan

Wellbeing of staff and customers

• Exclude staff and customers who are unwell from the premises. • Provide staff with information and training on COVID-19, including when to get tested, physical distancing and cleaning. Train staff in the process of how to collect and store contact details of patrons if your venue is dine-in. • Make staff aware of their leave entitlements if they are sick or required to self-isolate. • Display conditions of entry (website, social media, venue entry). • Venues must assign one staff member as a COVID-19 Safe Hygiene Marshall who will be in distinctive clothing (eg shirt or badge) and responsible for ensuring all aspects of the COVID-19 Safety Plan are being adhered to including overseeing social distancing, cleaning and ensuring the accuracy of record keeping. • If the venue has a capacity of 250 patrons or more, the identified Safe Hygiene Marshall/s must always be present while the venue is operational; for venues with a capacity of less than 250 patrons, the identified Safety Marshall/s must be present during peak operational hours (during lunch 12pm to 3pm and dinner 5pm to 9pm, or other peak periods).  

Physical distancing

• Capacity must not exceed 300 patrons, or the number allowable by one customer per 4 square metres of space, whichever is lesser. • Dancefloors are not permitted, except for at a wedding reception where the wedding couple only may dance. • Bookings must not exceed 10 customers (except for weddings, funerals and corporate events). There should be no more than 10 customers at a table. • Reduce contact or mingling between customer groups and tables wherever possible. • Move or remove tables and seating to support 1.5 metres of physical distance where possible. Household or other close contacts are not required to physically distance. Groups of friends may not necessarily all be household-like contacts and so may require additional space at a table so that they can physically distance. • Reduce crowding and promote physical distancing with markers on the floor where people are asked to queue, such as at the bar. • Where possible, ensure staff maintain 1.5 metres physical distancing (including at meal breaks and in office or meeting rooms) and assign workers to specific work stations. If a premise has multiple food and drink areas, staff should work in an assigned area and not work across different areas. • Alcohol can only be consumed by seated customers. • Where reasonably practical, stagger start times and breaks for staff members. • Consider physical barriers such as plexiglass around counters with high volume interactions with customers. • Review regular deliveries and request contactless delivery/invoicing where practical. • Introduce strategies to manage gatherings that may occur outside the premises. • High energy dance, as well as singing and wind instruments, can spread COVID-19 if a participant is infected. Additional planning around these activities should be undertaken from a work health and safety perspective, including ensuring 3 metres distance from the audience. Group singing should be avoided.  

Hygiene and cleaning

• Adopt good hand hygiene practises. • Ensure bathrooms are well stocked with hand soap and paper towels or hand dryers. • Reduce the number of surfaces touched by customers wherever possible. • No self-serve buffet style food service areas, communal bar snacks, communal condiments, or hookahs. If condiments are on individual tables, such as salt and pepper shakers, these should be cleaned between each customer. • Clean cutlery and tableware with detergent and hot water, or with a commercial grade dishwasher if available. • Menus should be laminated (clean between use), displayed or be single use. Place takeaway menus outside the venue where possible. • Clean frequently used indoor hard surface areas at least daily with detergent/disinfectant. Clean frequently touched areas and surfaces several times per day. Clean tables, chairs and any table settings between each customer. If using a paper sign in system, ensure the pen is wiped down with a disinfectant solution or wipe between use. • Maintain disinfectant solutions at an appropriate strength and use in accordance with the manufacturers’ instructions. • Staff are to wear gloves when cleaning and wash hands thoroughly before and after with soap and water. • Encourage contactless payment options.  

Record keeping

• Keep name and a contact number for all staff, dine-in customers (excluding food courts) and contractors for a period of at least 28 days. Each person that attends a venue MUST provide their name and contact details. Records are only to be used for tracing COVID-19 infections and must be stored confidentially and securely. • It is the role of the COVID-19 Safe Hygiene Marshall to ensure the accuracy and legibility of records. • Paper sign-in is permitted, but premises must digitise these within 24 hours and provide immediately on request. QR Code sign-in is encouraged. • Employers should make staff aware of the COVIDSafe app and the benefits of the app to support contact tracing if required. • All venues must register their COVID-19 Safety Plan through nsw.gov.au. • Cooperate with NSW Health if contacted in relation to a positive case of COVID-19 at your workplace, and notify SafeWork NSW on 13 10 50.  

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