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OCT. NOV. 2020 XII close (or in extreme cases have been forced to do so) because of reports of positive-testing among staff or because of an outbreak. What do you do in these cases? We asked two professionals who approach the issue from two different points of view: technical and communication. “If a case of positivity should occur within a food and drink service activity, whether it be a restaurant or a bar with table service possibilities,” explains Valerio Sarti, food technologist and owner of Viesse Consulting, “the procedure to be adopted is very similar. “First of all, all catering activities, as provided for in the Guidelines for the reopening of economic, productive and recreational activities published on 11 June following the State-Regions Conference, must be equipped with a specific protocol for the management and containment of Covid-19 within its business.” SYMPTOM CHECKS The first aspect is that of temperature measurement, which must be done not only for customers but also for staff before they enter the workplace. “If the body temperature should be higher than 37.5°C,” underlines Sarti, “access or stay in the workplace must not be allowed. “If an employee reports a symptom (during the temperature measurement or at any time during the working day), the owner of the premises must promptly notify his or her competent Doctor.” If the employee tests positive, the protocol drawn up by the National Health System provides that one of the persons in charge of health in the workplace must work with the competent health authority (ATS in Italy) to define any “close contacts” within the workplace during the previous 14 days. “On the basis of the circulars and ministerial ordinances,” says Sarti, “the regional health authorities must apply the quarantine measure with active surveillance for fourteen days to the close contacts of a probable or confirmed case and the restaurateur must then assess on a case-by-case basis the close contacts within the premises.” Close contact means, for example, a person living in the same house as a COVID-19 case, a person who has had direct physical contact with a COVID-19 case (e.g. handshake), a person who has had unprotected direct contact with the secretions of a COVID-19 case (e.g. touching used paper handkerchiefs with bare hands), a person who has had direct (face-to-face) contact with a COVID-19 case, at a distance of less than 2 metres and at least 15 minutes, a person who has been in a closed environment with a COVID-19 case in the absence of suitable protective equipment. All these circumstances may indeed occur in the case of a catering activity. “While the health authority’s investigation is in progress, the employer may, as a caution, ask any possible close contacts to leave the premises. However, there is a margin of discretion: on a case-by- case basis, it is up to the individual Departments of Health of the different health authorities to decide whether or not to arrange for close contacts to be isolated at home. “In both cases, in addition to the normal disinfection and sanitisation of the premises provided for in the company protocol, in the case of the presence of a positive worker, extraordinary sanitisation of the restaurant areas must be provided for.” IF THE CLIENT IS POSITIVE It is different when the positivity concerns a client. “In this case,” concludes Sarti, “the restaurateur must cooperate with the Health Department and this person who visited the premises to define the presumed chain of infection. In addition, he or she must make available evidence of compliance with the preventive anti-contamination measures in the Covid-19 company protocol. I would like to point out that the closure is only triggered by measures imposed by the health authority, but it can be voluntary if, due to the quarantine imposed on the positive person’s colleagues, the restaurant is without staff. The problem is business continuity.” GOOD COMMUNICATION TO MANAGE THE CRISIS But what happens if, while doing your job well as a restaurateur and respecting the rules, the restaurant is closed or has to stay closed because employees cannot go to work? This situation must not become a shame, but one must prepare for its reopening. Alessandra Disnan, food communication expert and owner of Make it Food explains. “We start from the assumption that we do our job well, we know the rules and, above all, we enforce them. It happens (because we were careful, weren’t we?) that the restaurant is closed due to a suspected outbreak or following a check in full service, perhaps when our mask was slightly lowered, to help the gentleman of a certain age to better understand the menu. A fine arrives for violation of anti-Covid regulations, or a case of positivity between employees and our premises, unfortunately, closes for a certain period. What to do in this case? How do we get rid of this “mark” that will inevitably have an economic, image and reputational impact? First thing: communicate it! Let’s not omit the “damage”, let’s not pretend nothing happened by suddenly announcing a few days off or simulating the imminent installation of the heating system. Social networks, the media, simple word of mouth in the neighbourhood or town are a powerful sounding board. We face the situation head- on because we restaurateurs are professionals and the violation was simply caused by an unfortunate chain of events.” WHERE TO START? ALESSANDRA SUGGESTS SIX MEASURES: WE ALERT OUR CUSTOMERS. Through Facebook, maybe using a photo of the staff with mask and distances respected (it happened that some managers were fined because they published the photo with the staff without mask on social media without distancing). We demonstrate proximity as a team to welcome support from our clients. Through Instagram, exploiting the power of stories! Again, let’s MAGAZINE