The sixth batch of commercial activities will be allowed to open from tomorrow (26th August) but will still need to adhere to COVID-19 precautions.

The Supreme Committee has released a set of business activities that can restart and these include fitness centres, barber shops, all restaurants and cafes, ladies’ beauty parlours, traditional medicine clinics, wedding supplies shops, and meeting rooms in hotels.

The announcement has brought a visible sigh of relief and cheer. Zeinab Al Saeed, who runs a beauty salon in the upmarket Shati area says that she had been waiting for this news for a long time. She says all precautions including masks, and number of clients allowed at any given time will be put in place strictly. Apart from sanitising the wares after every use, washing hands with soap after each client and keeping sanitizer in easy access for clients, beauticians in her salon will also be wearing face shield says Zeinab. “Disposable ropes, disposable bedsheets, and towels, acrylic divider for manicure and a distance of two metres between clients are the other important measures that we will be ensuring in our salon,” she says.

Some barber shops had already enforced a call-to-book-appointment-system to minimise waiting and crowding. To ensure the mandated social distancing, the number of customers who can be attended at one time has also been reduced.

Ibrahim Moideen, whose barber shops in Azaiba residential area, accommodates three on a normal day, but it will only take two at one time from tomorrow. “From tomorrow, we will be handling only two at a time to ensure social distancing. I have already prepped the shop with sanitization equipment, face shield and acrylic divider, apart from temperature checking at the entrance. My customers have not stopped calling me since the news was out. I am maintaining a register now, entering the name and time slot and it is getting filled in faster than I expected.”

Gyms too were prepping their premises to welcome their patrons after almost five months of closure.