Restaurants are allowed to stay open longer and to accept more dine-in customers starting today, Tuesday, according to the new rules released by the Department of Trade and Industry.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez says restaurants, fast-food chains, canteens, food parks and other eateries in the General Community Quarantine areas may operate at 50-percent capacity starting today.
Meanwhile, the food establishments in the Modified Community Quarantine locations may accommodate up to 75 percent of their original seating capacity.
The department’s Memorandum Circular 20-39 allows food establishments to operate until 11 p.m. in the GCQ and MCQ areas.
"All restaurants and fast-food businesses shall be allowed to operate until 11 p.m. Thus, LGUs are enjoined to adjust curfew hours up to 12 midnight to allow greater daily turnover of dine-in services and enhance income opportunities for workers," the order says.
Lopez earlier said the new rules would add to workers' salaries since dinner meals usually accounted for 40 to 50 percent of a store's daily sales.
The easing of the rules comes as the infections, especially in Metro Manila, saw a recent spike attributed to the relaxation of the restrictions.
Most of the Philippines remains under GCQ and MGCQ except for Cebu City, which transitioned to the modified enhanced community quarantine on July 16. A number of cities in Metro Manila have relaxed the curfew hours to 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. During the months of ECQ, the cutoff was from 8 p.m.
Food establishments are also allowed to serve alcoholic drinks to customers, but at a maximum of two individual servings each.
All services and payments must be delivered as contactless as possible, the department says, such as online menus and e-payments. Buffet services are allowed to resume as long as food servers will transfer food to a diner's plate.
The department earlier said that the daily monitoring of food stores revealed a high compliance rate in terms of strict health standards for restaurants during the first month when they were allowed to reopen.
Authorities require the wearing of masks, temperature checks, health declaration forms and contact tracing schemes for customers, proper ventilation and exhaust systems, the provision of sanitizers, the regular disinfection of seats, and the adequate spacing of the barriers separating diners and other tables. Lopez says some stores even impose additional safety protocols.
As of Sunday, the Philippines had recorded 67,456 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 22,465 recoveries and 1,831 deaths. Despite the steady rise in infections, government officials have said the economy can no longer afford to return to lockdowns.
Separately, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases had given more leeway for the Trade department to allow the opening of more industries, especially by moving select businesses out of the restricted or Category-4 level.
Among the establishments that remain shut since the March lockdown are theaters and other entertainment-related firms, libraries, amusement and gaming areas and museums.