Restaurant offers COVID DEALS

Would you buy a COVID DEAL? We are actually talking about food! A restaurant in St Catherine, Kaluga Kafe, has been marketing its meal-delivery service to persons who are in need of food but who are too fearful to leave their homes or offices for a bite due to COVID-19.

"Restaurants have been seeing significant reductions in customers," Patricia Garib, head of the food establishment, told THE STAR. "We don't know the exact demand, but the opportunity to further serve our customers at home exists due to the fear of going out to get food," she said.

Raft of measures

Jamaica has been declared a disaster area by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, whose administration has imposed a raft of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. Workers in food establishments, for example, are required to be free from the disease.

Garib told THE STAR that staff members are required to sanitise their hands after handling cash, debit and credit cards, and delivery riders are required to wear masks and sanitise their hands after each delivery.

"We maintain strict sanitation protocols," she said. "Any sign of coughing, a staff is not allowed to work. We have also implemented daily temperature checks for staff."

Garib said that the COVID DEALS became available yesterday. And with a name that might spark controversy among Jamaicans, Garib said that the move to label delivery food packaged as COVID DEALS was well thought through.

"It is what it is, deals running through the COVID period. COVID is a virus, but it also causes widespread change and behaviour like Valentine's. We have never been a conservative brand. Our culture at Kaluga surrounds risk taking, change, and innovation," she said.

The Department of Agriculture in the United States of America said that there is currently no evidence that COVID-19 can be transmitted through food or food packaging. However, research indicates that the virus is known to live on surfaces up to nine days.