Police in the capital area will start fining restaurants in town that don’t follow disease control recommendations.
This follows reports from last weekend, when 24 restaurants and entertainment venues were checked by police to see if they were following disease prevention rules in terms of number restrictions and a distance of two meters between people.
According to a report from Fréttablaðið 15 of those 24 didn’t adhere to the rules properly. The owners of the establishments were reprimanded and instructed on how to better implement rules for disease prevention.
Two restaurants were closed due to their licenses not being in order.
Ásgeir Þór Ásgeirsson, chief of police at the capital area police, tells Vísir that since there were few people inside the places, there was no reason to evacuate them. A report will be taken from the owners of the restaurants and the case will go through the appropriate process with the police.
Police officers are reported to be tasked with investigating the situation in restaurants throughout the week, with the goal of clearing all epidemic issues for restaurants and entertainment venues by next weekend.
According to Fréttablaðið, a result of the findings of last weekend is that the police in the capital area will start fining restaurants that do not follow the recommendations for disease control and number restrictions and will even implement evacuations and temporary closures if deemed necessary.
Ásgeir is furthermore reported by Vísir to have emphasised individual responsibility in containing the virus, by for example not going to places that obviously don’t follow disease control rules. He is quoted saying, “The authorities are not going to defeat this virus; we are.”
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