Photo Cred: Hailey Dolan
Beginning at 12:01am on Mar. 30, Middlesex-London will be seeing more restrictions due to COVID-19. The region will once again find itself in the orange-zone after a spike in cases over the weekend. 78 new cases were recorded on Sunday, the highest London has seen in months.
Owner of Brown and Dickson bookstore on Richmond Street, Vanessa Brown, is disappointed with the added restrictions but understands their importance.
“I’m just disappointed we haven’t been able to control ourselves, and stay indoors and stay safe, and flatten the curve. We’ve gone through this before and we know it’s required, so it’s frustrating we have to go into the red zone.”
Brown’s store decided against opening last week during the St. Patrick’s Day festivities after seeing the long line-ups outside of many of the bars along the street. She goes on to mention what the change in restrictions means for her business.
“I think the main difference for us is really refocusing on delivery and curbside, and limiting the number of people in the store. So it means we are going to have a line-up. Instead of having 10 people in the store, we’ll have two. In general I don’t mind that because it’s a risk to us.”
The lineup that lead to Brown closing down for St. Paddy’s Day was out front of Jack’s on Richmond. It began hours before opening, making it difficult for the establishment to monitor social distancing and mask wearing. Jack’s manager Sam Jones discusses what the establishment is currently doing to ensure safe practices are being followed outside of the bar.
“St Paddy’s Day was tricky because we can’t monitor our lines when we’re not even here yet. When we are open we are constantly going outside telling people to stay six feet apart, put your mask on, and people that aren’t listening we just don’t let them in our bar.” said Jones.
She goes on to discuss what the move to red means for their business.
“It hasn’t changed too much now that it’s different, going from 10 people in the previous red to now 50, so that does help. With the weather getting nicer we are able to have our patios open, so that’s going to help a lot. It’s weather permitting for outside, so fingers crossed for some nice weather.”
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