Update 21st August from the GTA shown below – The Gozo Tourism Association has, through a circular, informed its members with an update on new measures for bars through a media release issued by the Malta Tourism Authority.

The Legal Notice for the new regulations can be found by clicking here.

The Gozo Tourism Association said that as from 8am on Wednesday, the 19th of August, the clarifications on the measures are:

“Hotels and Restaurants guests will need to wear masks in all public spaces, this mean that tourists/guests need to wear masks at lobby, corridors, reception, pool areas, entering and exiting from restaurants, and even when going to the restrooms.”

Hotels bars and/or cafeterias can serve guests with food and drinks at their tables, whilst ensuring that no service or orders are taken or provided over the bar counter, the GTA said.

The above point, it said “also applies to pool bars within hotels and other establishments, who can serve guests at the table and/or deckchairs as long as they have food and are waiter served whilst ensuring that no service or orders are taken or provided over the bar counter.”

The maximum number of people on a table is of 10 persons per table.

Further to the above, the Malta Tourism Authority also advised that with reference to the legal notice published in connection with the new regulations regarding the opening of bars and kazini, the law states that bars and kazini can serve food and drinks, but only to patrons who are seated at tables.

The MTA said that “the main emphasis remains on the concept that a customer is seated and not roaming around, whilst respecting the applicable social distance.”

The Authority stressed that, “the definition of food served at a bar or a kazin, secondary to the principle mentioned earlier, should be interpreted as snacks and platters, in the spirit of reasonableness and common sense.”

“Circumventing the spirit of the law in an attempt to twist the regulations and reduce this requirement at the expense of public health is not acceptable,” it said.

The Authority continued to stress the need “for responsibility and discipline.”

Photo by Alain Salvary

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