The Min­istry of Health has con­firmed that con­sump­tion of al­co­hol is per­mis­si­ble at busi­ness­es op­er­at­ing as Safe Zones, from to­day, Mon­day 1 No­vem­ber 2021, ac­cord­ing to an ad­vi­so­ry is­sued by the Min­istry late last evening.

This means that restau­rants, bars, cin­e­mas and oth­er en­ter­tain­ment busi­ness­es bear­ing the Safe Zone des­ig­na­tion, are free to serve al­co­hol to their cus­tomers, who must con­sume such with­in the premis­es, as it is still pro­hib­it­ed to con­sume al­co­hol out­side of these premis­es, un­der the ex­ist­ing COVID-19 Reg­u­la­tions.

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the state­ment is­sued by the Health Min­istry on the mat­ter…

State­ment on the Con­sump­tion of al­co­hol on the premis­es of Busi­ness­es op­er­at­ing as Safe Zones - State­ment No. 13

Port of Spain, 31st Oc­to­ber 2021: The con­sump­tion of al­co­hol is per­mis­si­ble from 1st No­vem­ber 2021 on the premis­es of Busi­ness­es op­er­at­ing as Safe Zones pur­suant to Reg­u­la­tion 6 of the Pub­lic Health [2019 Nov­el Coro­n­avirus (2019-n CoV)] (No. 21) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021 (or any sub­se­quent re­place­ment Reg­u­la­tions).

Pur­suant to Reg­u­la­tion 6 of the Pub­lic Health [2019 Nov­el Coro­n­avirus (2019-n CoV)] (No. 21) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021 (or any sub­se­quent re­place­ment Reg­u­la­tions) and Reg­u­la­tions 3(1) and 3(10)(ao) of the Emer­gency Pow­ers (No. 2) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021, which take ef­fect on Mon­day 1st No­vem­ber 2021, the Min­is­ter of Health here­by au­tho­ris­es the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol ON­LY on the premis­es of Busi­ness­es op­er­at­ing as Safe Zones pur­suant to Reg­u­la­tion 6 of the Pub­lic Health [2019 Nov­el Coro­n­avirus (2019-n CoV)] (No. 21) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021 (or any sub­se­quent re­place­ment Reg­u­la­tions).

All Own­ers and Op­er­a­tors of Busi­ness­es and Cus­tomers are re­mind­ed as fol­lows:

1.   On­ly the fol­low­ing busi­ness­es may op­er­ate as Safe Zones PRO­VID­ED THAT they meet the re­quire­ments of the Safe Zone pol­i­cy as de­lin­eat­ed in Reg­u­la­tion 6 of the Pub­lic Health [2019 Nov­el Coro­n­avirus (2019-n CoV)] (No. 21) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021 (or any sub­se­quent re­place­ment Reg­u­la­tions):

            a)         restau­rants;

            b)         bars;

            c)         a com­mon gam­ing house, bet­ting pool or of­fice li­censed un­der the Gam­bling and Bet­ting Act;

            d)         a cin­e­ma or the­atre li­censed un­der the Cin­e­mato­graph Act;

            e)         a pri­vate mem­bers’ club li­censed un­der the Reg­is­tra­tion of Clubs Act;

            f)          a the­atre un­der the The­atres and Dance­halls Act;

            g)         gyms and fit­ness stu­dios; and

            h)         wa­ter­parks.

2.   The con­sump­tion of any food or drink or al­co­hol and/or in house din­ing is per­mit­ted ON­LY on the premis­es of Busi­ness­es op­er­at­ing as Safe Zones.

3.   The con­sump­tion of any food or drink or al­co­hol out­side the premis­es of Busi­ness­es op­er­at­ing as Safe Zones or on the road­side of Busi­ness­es op­er­at­ing as Safe Zones, re­mains strict­ly pro­hib­it­ed.

All per­sons are ad­vised to com­ply strict­ly with the (oth­er) le­gal re­quire­ments of the Emer­gency Pow­ers (No. 2) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021, the Pub­lic Health [2019 Nov­el Coro­n­avirus (2019-nCoV)] (No. 21) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021 (or any sub­se­quent re­place­ment Reg­u­la­tions) and the pub­lic health guide­lines.

Au­tho­riza­tions grant­ed by the Min­is­ter of Health pur­suant to State­ments 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 re­main valid (un­less oth­er­wise var­ied by this State­ment).

The Min­istry of Health will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor this de­vel­op­ment and take steps to safe­guard the health of the pop­u­la­tion.