AMMAN — Large family gatherings and
restaurant and café visits mark Eid Al-Adha each year. Yet, this eid, the ongoing
pandemic has raised concerns about overcrowding and possible spikes in COVID-19
infections.
اضافة اعلان
Ramez Abdallah told
Jordan News that his
one of his family’s “rituals in eid is going to a
restaurant on the second day.”
This year, to Abdallah’s surprise, the restaurant he visited “was so crowded
that (people) did not even social distance. Tables “were so close together”
that there was not enough space between people, he said.
"The problem is that restaurants want to
make profit,” said Abdallah. “They do not care about our health. They could
have limited the number of tables and thus the number of people, but they did
not do that."
Abdallah wasn’t the only one who noticed
overcrowding in restaurants over the holiday. "When I saw that the
restaurant we wanted to eat in on the first day of eid was crowded, I decided
to go to another one. Adhering to safety measures is a priority for me,"
said Ahmad Odeh in an interview with
Jordan News. "I did not mind changing
tens of restaurants to find one that was.
"The problem was that at the first restaurant, people were too close to each other and were being served argileh,” he said. “I don’t know how people can still smoke argileh during the pandemic."
Some decided to abandon the usual family
restaurant visit this year. Mohammad Al-Khateeb, another citizen, told
Jordan
News that, "My family and I decided to spend the eid holiday with our
family (at home). We can go to a restaurant or a cafe anytime, so why take the
risk of getting infected? We all know how crowded restaurants are during eid.”
"We know how to enjoy our time and also
apply safety measures,” said Khateeb. “During our gatherings with our families,
my wife and I social distanced, and, of course, we did not shake hands with
anyone. This is better and safer for everyone; The pandemic is not over
yet."
Hasan Abdel Fatah, an employee at one of
Amman’s restaurants, told Jordan News that "we all know that during
eid, people choose to spend time with their families at restaurants, stating
that this is a “ritual for almost all Jordanians.”
“We as restaurant employees suffered from rush
times,” he said. “But still we tried our best to adhere to safety
measures."
Abdel Fatah emphasized the difficulty of
balancing both the need for revenue and
public health concerns.
"I cannot deny that we want to make profit.
We cannot prevent people from coming to our restaurant or limit the number of
tables (during eid) because we wait for such occasions to compensate for some of
the significant losses we suffered during the pandemic,” he said.
“But at the same time, we applied certain
health protocols, like keeping our masks on all the time and sanitizing, in
addition to asking people to keep their masks until they reach their
tables."
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