Instructions Issued To Dining Establishments For Patron Information Collection

Peterborough Public Health has issued instructions to dining establishments on collecting diner information due to recent large-scale COVID-19 exposures in the community announced on Thursday.

File Photo.

These instructions, effective immediately, enhance the provincial requirements and are directed toward owners, operators and persons responsible for food premises with indoor and/or outdoor dining areas according to the press release.

Names, phone numbers, location of dining establishment and server name are the information dining establishments are urged to collect.

Collection of patron information is mandatory under O. Reg. 364/20: Rules for Areas at Step 3 and the Roadmap Exit Step.

As a result of recent large-scale exposures and insufficient patron contact records, Peterborough Public Health continues to follow a significant number of people who have been deemed high-risk contacts of a person with COVID-19. Two of the recent large exposures occurred at two different local food premises.

“Case management and contact tracing are essential components of our local COVID-19 response to prevent transmission and protect our community,” said Dr. Rosana Salvaterra, Medical Officer of Health. “These instructions, which ask operators to use the template that we have created for the collection of patron information, will help to ensure that sufficient and thorough details of exposure are provided to our office, which will allow for efficient and timely follow-up, when large-scale exposures occur. And I want to remind everyone choosing to dine out that you must provide accurate contact information to the operator. It won’t work if the data is wrong.”

Dr. Salvaterra noted that these instructions are an extension of a requirement that currently exists in the legislation governing Step Three of the current provincial restrictions.

The instructions aim to prescribe the exact information that restaurants should be collecting for patrons who remain onsite to dine. The instructions do not apply to food premises that require patrons to order and pay for their food, prior to sitting at a table such as cafeterias and fast food establishments.

Julie Ingram, Manager of Environmental Health advised the community that the Instructions are mandatory and enforceable under the Reopening Ontario Act (ROA).

“Public Health Inspectors are educating restaurant operators to ensure that they are aware of the importance of adequate record-keeping and to ensure that these Instructions are implemented within their establishments,” she said.

Ingram noted businesses are not the only ones that could face consequences for non-compliance.

“It’s important for the community to know that not only business owners and operators be charged but for failing to complement these instructions but customers themselves can be charged with obstruction under the Reopening Ontario Act,” she added.

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