Maharashtra allows restaurants to operate till 10 PM, restaurateurs perplexed over mandatory vaccination

In a bid to further give some more relaxations to the business, Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced restaurant and other businesses to open till 10 PM, everyday.

Restaurants can open with 50 per cent capacity till 10 pm from August 15, shared Health minister Rajesh Tope after the state Cabinet meeting yesterday.

However, the restaurants and hotel bodies are still apprehensive because the order said staffs who have got both doses can work at these establishments or one who have completed at least 98 days after their dose.

This means, that restaurants that are operating as of now till 4 PM will not be able to operate from 15^th August because if we look at numbers of staff vaccinated with both doses are still less than 10 per cent.

Sharing in an Instagram post, Pankil Shah of Woodside Inn shared, The Saga continue…Even as per BMC, as of May 27^th, only 1.3 lakh citizens of Mumbai between 18-44 years of age had received their first dose. That’s 1.3 per cent of the total eligible population in Mumbai.”

As per experts, most of the employees’ including chefs, managers, servers and other front house staffs are aged between 14-44 and because the vaccination for this age group started late, there is a very small per centage of these employees who have got both the dosages.

In a similar post, Vibhu Sharma, an F&B Professional added, “Why you do this to restaurants! As per numbers, less than 7 per cent of Maharashtra is double vaccinated.”

“If we look at numbers, 90 per cent of the restaurant staff falling under PRHA is now vaccinated with 1st dose and within another 1.5-2 months time they will get all staff fully vaccinated,” shared Ganesh Shetty, President, PRHA earlier this week when Pune announced extension of restaurant operational hours.