Aberdeen's bars to introduce 'yellow card' safety measure

Aberdeen's bars and restaurants are developing new safety measures ahead of their reopening to the public from Wednesday.

Restrictions were introduced almost three weeks ago after an outbreak linked to several venues in the city.

Premises can now start preparing to reopen, subject to checks from council officials.

Stuart McPhee, bar owner and spokesperson for the new group Aberdeen Hospitality Together, says businesses have developed a "last orders" scheme.

He said: "What we have been doing with the hospitality together group is looking at how we can put safety measures in place to ensure we don't end back in the same place we found ourselves in before.

"One of those is the universal application of a 'last orders' scheme. Every venue will be operating all the usual measures, enforcing the social distancing rule and the other measures we are all familiar with. 

"However, failure to adhere to any of those would result in our 'yellow card' say, for whoever is breaking the rules, and subsequently if the rules are broken again then they would be asked to leave the premises. 

"That will be something that will help drill down on the fact that these are really serious things we are asking people to do and it is not just a throw away 'oh, you need to keep your distance' type system. 

"It's important to get across that we are all in this together when we reopen. We are asking again from our own point of view, and my business's point of view, for patience, to bear with us while we do reopen and get back into the swing of things. 

"Most importantly we are protecting a lot of jobs by doing so and we are going to be in a position that allows us to get going again.

"This is not going to be a short-term recovery, we need to look into the longer term and what we can all do to try and do better, keep going and improve things." 

Following guidance from the Scottish Government, hospitality premises are only allowed to reopen once an environmental health check has been completed.

But Mr McPhee is hopeful most will be able to open their doors this week.

He said: "It is encouraging to see the environmental health officers have already been out for three days, at the end of last week, doing site visits.

"They have also been hosting webinars for venues and businesses around the city, with a lot of information being divulged, which most will be finding useful.

"Hopefully they will manage to get around rest of the businesses throughout the rest of the week so there is not too much of a delay for people reopening when they can."

Meanwhile, NHS Grampian has confirmed new rules at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital where one person can accompany women to appointments and scans.

Those in labour can have up to two people with them and after the birth, there can be one designated visitor in addition to the birth partner in ward areas.

The health board also revealed most hospital areas will resume in-person visiting with one visitor per patient by pre-arranged appointment from tomorrow.