A draft COVID-19 safe checklist for dining could add to onerous requirements for hotels, cafes, restaurants pubs and clubs looking to reopen.
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The unapproved document sent out to establishments yesterday has a long list of requirements around social distancing, hygiene and well-being of workers.
The proposals suggest separate exit and entry points and separate order and collection points to minimise contact, limiting time on site, and ensuring distance of 4 square metres per person.
There is even a proposed requirement for record keeping with a proposal that contact information must be kept for all tables and workers, including name, address and mobile phone number of a person at each table, for a period of at least 28 days.
These requirements if implemented could prove too onerous for many smaller establishments.
Debbie Wust, who runs the Walkabout Creek Hotel in McKinlay with husband Frank said she can't see the pub re-opening until June despite the easing of some restrictions from this weekend.
"We're open for takeaway only at the moment, it's a small area so people just knock when they want takeaway," she said.
"It's too early to re-open with the amount of traffic and the fact we can't yet open the bar."
Ms Wust said the checklist looked unviable for small premises.
"It's only Frank and I here," she said.
She was also worried how they would survive through to next winter with most of this year's tourist season in tatters and very little through traffic in summer.
"We've got talks with the bank on Friday," she said.
The Mount Isa Irish Club has also said it won't reopen till July but the Central Hotel Cloncurry said it will reopen its restaurant on Monday.
"We'll see how goes for a week," said a staffer at the hotel.
"It's hard with not much stock and no staff. We had to shut down the fridges and send beer back."
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