“This is the new normal”- The most common sentence heard these days as it is quite evident now that the current pandemic situation is going to continue for atleast a few more months. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the social and economic health and open the market without restrictions on activities, as lockdown cannot be implemented forever. Considering the data from spanish flu that lasted for long, it returned in multiple waves and the second wave was much deadlier. This urgents the need of long-term planning for COVID.

In this era, most of the social activities are replaced by the internet, but the economic activities still need to be managed. In western countries, large corporate businesses design and define their standard protocol for operations, that makes it needless for the government to intervene. On the contrary, in developing countries like India, small businesses constitute the major part of the economy. This warrants the need of a standard protocol for individual shops and local businesses to operate and parallely keep the contamination from Corona at bay. Local authorities can help in issuing mandates for such protocols under the existing act.

To discuss a few, such standard protocol can include the following points-

Wearing a mask should be mandatory for everyone in public.

Avoidable services should be avoided. For example, salons should avoid operating face massage and other services that require close contact and cannot be delivered without a mask.

As a proactive preventive measure, the employer should record the temperature of himself and the workers/employee twice daily. The record-sheet with signature should be kept for 90 days for probable auditing. This would also help in contact tracing. A standard shareable format can be uploaded by the government website and no specific sheet is needed. For compliance, primary auditing can be authorized to the self-help groups and NGOs, who can give first warning and then second auditing can be done by the officials with strict penalties.

For the prolonged/close customer/patient interaction services like healthcare and salons, the temperature of customers should also be recorded with contact number. Any contact with persons accompanying the deliveries should be avoided, and their temperature be recorded. If possible, keep the new supply untouched for 4days. Infrared thermometers measure forehead temperature and avoid contamination. If the employer cannot afford the infrared thermometers, and none other than employees comes into the working area, employers can also use the regular thermometers separately for each employee.

Stringent implementation of social distancing during shopping with the help of signs and posters. Shops should limit the maximum customer capacity of their stores, according to the specified protocol and strictly adhere to it. Neither should the colleagues be allowed to violate the social-distancing.

Transmission between customer and shopkeeper can be avoided by installing a barrier like plexiglass sheet at the billing and interaction section. Plexiglass costs start at 19Rs/sqft and can be self-installed with clamps which makes it economic and feasible.

Source: Delawareonline.com

Online/mobile money transactions by apps like Bheem, Paytm, can be promoted by the government by offering signup bonus and providing rebates on online transactions to customers and businesses. Credit cards/ATMs are more prone for transmission; thus it needs a specific protocol.

According to RBI, 72% of consumer transactions are in cash. This raises the concern of transmission of infection during the pandemic. With cash payments, storeowners can keep the collections and distribution cash separately. Use the right, left, sanitize method. Right hand to collect and left to return the change followed by sanitization. After contact with the cash/coins, avoid touching anything without sanitizing. Mark the box for Day0, -1, -2 and -3. Use the collected cash/coins after 4days. 

Parcels can be handed to customers through the shoot style delivery or by placing that on the table/counter to be picked up. Strictly no returns policy.

Within the stores, proper sanitization of material would make the long-term business possible while avoiding the transmission.

If these things are kept in mind as the shopping protocol for businesses as the shopping would be inevitable, it would be very helpful in keeping away from the deadly COVID.