Opening hours revised for malls in Muscat

Muscat: Muscat Municipality has revised the mall opening hours in a statement on Monday. Work timing for commercial centers and malls will be from 10 am to 10 pm, with the exception of hypermarkets. It also prohibited the opening and use of dressing rooms in all malls and stores. Malls and commercial complexes reopened last week after three months, with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as part of the preventive measures to limit the spread of the COVID-19. The SOPs are as follows: No entry for elderly aged 60 years and above and children below 12 years, which will be revised by the government in the coming days. All visitors will undergo a temperature test before entering the mall to ensure the safety of all. As per the guidelines, all the malls shall remove seats from common areas, while prayer hall will remain closed until further notice. Parking occupancy should not exceed 50 percent and the same should be manned by security personnel and operations staff. It is strictly forbidden to sit in the mall’s facilities, while cafes and restaurants will serve their meals for eating out. Hand dryers in all the restrooms to be switched off and sealed for customer usage. Mall management will carry out routine inspection inside retailers’ stores to ensure effective and frequent disinfection and sanitization is being carried out by all outlets. Retailers must not transfer an employee from one branch to another. Staff should be positioned inside the mall to monitor whether customers are wearing face masks to prevent the gathering of customers at the same place. They should prevent the entry of customers in case of crowding inside the mall. Customers must wear a face mask when entering the mall. A signboard shall be placed at all the entrances of the malls, mentioning that the customers shall not stay inside for more than two hours. All mall visitors, retailers, and the third party contract staff will undergo temperature checks through thermal cameras placed at all the entry points. All meetings with the vendors or contractors should be scheduled, preferably, via a teleconference or online event. They have to avoid face-to-face meetings as much as possible. In case the face-to-face meeting is unavoidable, the same should be conducted in the reception area only once, keeping in mind social distancing norms. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to clean commonly touched surfaces, especially phone screens and laptops. These devices should be sanitised with the use of 70 per cent alcohol wipes or disinfecting wipes. The malls reserve the right to take the necessary measures to close the shop or inform the concerned municipality if the retailer fails to comply with the precautionary procedures. They have to ensure social distancing is maintained in all common areas, elevators, escalators, food court, ATMs etc.