British Columbia: Provincial Health Officer’s statement on social distancing in retail

RCC has received clarification for retailers operating in British Columbia on the province’s stance on social distancing as it applied to retail:

“Just to make clear what some of this is, and I know there’s been a lot of questions about what exactly this mean in different settings. Around businesses, the orders that we have really are about making sure that we have those appropriate measures in place so that essential businesses keep going. We don’t lose the essential services that we need in our communities, everything from the lights and wifi for sure, things like our public transportation networks, our essential goods and people movement around our province and our country, and internationally.

For businesses, for example, grocery stores or pharmacies, it will vary by the business how you will need to implement these measures. That will mean enhanced cleaning both in your premise, but also for people — employees of the premise so they can clean their hands frequently. They can clean the surfaces around them. They’re able to have enhanced cleaning in all parts of the business.

It can be tailored to your business. For some people, the social distancing requirements, making sure that there’s at least one to two metres around people in your business. If you’re a grocery store that’s a very large one, that may mean that you can accommodate several hundred people without them having to come in close contact with each other.

If it’s a very small business, it may have to be one at a time or very few people. Those are things that can be determined by your own business, given your own circumstances.”

View more information in RCC’s COVID-19 Resource section.