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More restaurants approved for dine-in and 2 "events" venues ok’d

Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo V. Ale
reporters@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The COVID-19 Task Force and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has granted approval to at least two more restaurants for dine-in service, according to documents presented at Wednesday’s task force briefing.

The documents also show that the government has approved two “events venues” to re-open — both are in Tafuna — Flame and The Bowling Alley. And the approvals came after the businesses submitted their plans for re-opening under current COVID-19 Declaration restrictions, which means they are operating only as events “venues” not as bars.

Samoa News understands that McDonald’s restaurant — which already has approval for dine-in service — has submitted a request to the EOC seeking authorization to operate 24-hours, and that proposal remains pending.

Also at Wednesday’s briefing, Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale, noted that there’s still some confusion about the restaurant policy for dine-in service pertaining to serving alcohol, according to ASG officials who participated in the virtual briefing.

Talauega, who is also the Governor’s Authorized Representative, emphasized that restaurants wanting to serve alcohol should contact the EOC for approval after submitting their plan.

ASG officials says that the government is looking at easing more restrictions on businesses, when the next COVID-19 declaration is issued later this month, but specific details will not be made available until that time.

Meanwhile, there have been multiple requests submitted from private schools to the task force about their graduation plans. Some schools will have award ceremonies aside from graduations, as well as 8th grade graduations.

No information was available at press time on these private school requests as to whether they have been approved or not.