Burnham-On-Sea’s Princess Theatre and Ritz Cinema are reinforcing mask wearing as part of new Plan B coronavirus restrictions that come into force today (Friday).
As a result of the emergence of the Omicron variant, the Government has implemented Plan B of its COVID reactive guidelines for the winter.
These include the wider use of face masks than previously but also advice to work from home where possible as of Monday 13th December.
From today (Friday), face coverings are mandatory inside cinemas and theatres – excluding hospitality settings. Face coverings can be removed in the venues when eating or drinking but should be kept on at all other times.
Burnham’s Princess Theatre spokeswoman told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “Since reopening, The Princess has continued to ask all audiences, users and customers to wear masks throughout the venue. Audiences, participants and performers have been grateful of this and happy to do so.”
“The Princess does not fall into the category requiring audiences to carry a COVID passport at this time. Should this become mandatory, we have plans in place to administrate this.”
“Back in June we introduced new safety procedures, including fogging between performances, heightened cleaning, digital signage and for those attending ticketed events; e-tickets with scanned entry. This has worked successfully and we will continue to work like this. We have also worked under the UK Theatre ‘See it Safely’ rules, introducing COVID safety procedures backstage, across staff and performers.”
“As such, for The Princess and those attending events the only change is now the legal requirement to wear a mask. We would like to thank our customers and audiences for returning to The Princess and following our safety procedures, it has made our return to business a joy!”
Pat Scott, owner of Burnham’s Ritz Cinema, adds: “We are carrying on as we have been doing, encouraging mask wearing except when people are eaing oir drinking at their seat.”
“We have a safe environment with extractor fans constantly changing the air throughout performances and we also do a full clean after each screening, cleaning seat arms and hand rails – we allow 30 minutes for this after each screening. Our staff are also wearing masks at all times to keep customers safe.”
“We look forward to welcoming customers to the cinema over the coming weeks.”
For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do#what-has-changed
