MC inspection teams have carried out 8,620 inspection tours in all regions of the Kingdom during the past four weeks, aiming at verifying the commitment of the commercial establishments to the precautionary and preventive measures relevant to confronting Covid-19 pandemic, also to ensure the safety of consumers.
The inspection tours resulted in detecting 511 establishments in violation. They did not comply with the precautionary and preventive measures. Therefore, the legal penalties have been imposed against them in accordance with the penalties prescribed for violating the precautionary and preventive measures relevant to Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Ministry of Commerce stressed that the stores should implement the health requirements and conditions, such as preventing the entry of those not putting the medical or cloth masks, stressing as well the commitment to social distances, besides providing disinfectants and sterilizers in the shops and stores, also taking the temperature for employees and customers at the entrances of malls and commercial centers, as well as disinfecting trolleys and shopping baskets after each use, in addition to disinfecting the facilities and surfaces in the stores and malls.
The Ministry of Commerce affirms that failure to implement the precautionary and preventive measures, relevant to confronting Covid-19 by the commercial establishments, would expose them to a fine of 10,000 riyals, provided that the penalty to be doubled in case of repeating such violation, together with the closure of the violating facility.
In addition, a fine of 5 thousand riyals to be imposed on each person when there is a gathering or overcrowding of shoppers or workers inside or outside the commercial store, exceeding the numbers stipulated in the precautionary and preventive measures, as per the official approved regulations.