Amidst the coronavirus pandemic that everyone is now talking about, businesses are trying to play their part in whichever industry they operate in.
COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the globe, and while people are trying their best to stay at home, others are trying to help them do so, or at least enhance their health code practices.
Food and Beverage Industry – Delivery
Drivers will keep their distance to help you stay safe!
In a time when you’re stuck at home and bored, you’re going to want to eat a little more. And for some of us who can’t cook or just don’t feel like it, food delivery is your savior. That’s where Elmenus comes in!
Their newest update includes a hygiene check filter, which is granted to restaurants that Elmenus checked for using the necessary health codes during the pandemic.
They took to their social media page ensuring that they’re raising awareness amongst all of their restaurant partners on how to achieve the best hygienic practices during the pandemic. They’ve also instructed their deliverymen to keep a safe distance while delivering food, or even leave it at the doorstep when possible.
They’ve always provided a cashless service, but they’re also re-encouraging their customers to use it and minimize contact.
Some restaurants are also providing free delivery for the time being, among them are Fuego Grill and Sushi Bar, and Desoky and Soda. Desoky and Soda is also banning shisha (hookah) in all of their branches indefinitely as well as serving their food in disposable cups and tableware.
Food and Beverage Industry Cleanliness Initiatives
Grab your coffee with clean hands!
When it comes to cleanliness, The Bakery Shop (TBS) has also appointed a person to be in charge of maintaining the World Health Organization’s cleanliness standards during this time. This includes personnel sanitizing their hands every 20 minutes and customers sanitizing their hands as they enter the shop and before they leave.
Needless to say, delivery men will also be expected to sanitize their vehicles and themselves. Other than that, the shop will close at 8 p.m. and will remove indoor seating.
Aside from general cleanliness rules, TBS also chose to show its appreciation to all the first responders, hospital personnel, by giving them free coffee and 50 percent off any other item.
30 North is also limiting the seating area to the outdoor area only as well as sanitizing all surfaces frequently.
On a less cleanliness-related note, Muy Frito decided to carry out a little act of kindness by offering anyone working at a hospital a free meal, also available for delivery. People often forget about the people who can’t really work from home and have to risk their health by being exposed to all types of illnesses, but Muy Frito didn’t!
Supermarkets
Oscar Grand Stores giving senior citizens a less hectic shopping experience
In many of the supermarkets around, cashiers and workers are already wearing gloves and/or face masks to protect themselves from catching the virus.
However, Oscar Grand Stores realizes that the main threat is for the older citizens, thus launching a Seniors Only Hour starting 8 in the morning so that senior citizens can comfortably shop during a less busy time.
And after people started freaking out about supermarket products running out, Hyper One and Carrefour both shared statements assuring the public that products are in fact constantly available and restocked in an effort to calm them down.
Online Courses and Education
While the education system switches to online learning, a bunch of online platforms are offering free courses to either help in the process of online courses, or just fill the boredom at home by learning new things.
Learning from the comfort of your own home
An ivy league school may have been your dream at some point, well you can now choose from 450 available free online courses provided by these eight ivy league schools.
These schools are Brown, Harvard, Cornell, Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania. They’re offering courses pertaining to any topic you can think of, including computer science, business, health and medicine, arts and design, education and many more.
For more online courses, Coursera is providing 3800 free online courses from 400 different specializations for any university impacted by the coronavirus. Enrollment is free until July 31 and courses can be completed through September 30.
LinkedIn Learning is also joining the party by offering 16 free online courses to help with the transition between working from the office and working from home, giving you 13 and a half hours of online courses, for more about online courses check out this article.
Another initiative targeted towards learning institutions, Loom is offering Loom Pro for free to all teachers and half off for everyone else, but for more on video conferencing tools, check out our other article.
The Transportation Industry
Uber and Careem have been market leaders in private transportation and they have both published statements about the efforts they are putting in to prevent any further spread of the virus.
Cleaner transportation at your service
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshani said in a statement that accounts may be suspended for a period of time while they make sure their health codes are in order. They’re providing their drivers with disinfectants to use between rides.
As for their Uber Eats service, Khosrowshani’s statement said that they understand that some people may be relying on food delivery. So, they added a new option where the customer can write in the notes that they would prefer if the delivery man left the food at the doorstep.
In another statement by Careem’s Managing Director Wael Abou ElElla, he also stressed the importance of disinfecting the vehicle between rides, as well as the importance of their already existent cashless service to minimize contact.
Medical Care
On call doctors, literally.
Medical care professionals obviously understand that people with non-COVID-19 health problems are too scared to visit hospitals due to the chance of coming in contact with other patients. Which is why several apps are offering alternative solutions.
Vezeeta is offering free phone calls for anyone who has questions about the new coronavirus or any other health-related questions. It is offering its doctors’ phone services from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. in order to help people stay at home.
Similarly, Altibbi is offering the same service through its application by calling or texting medical care professionals.
Internet and Act of Kindness
Of course almost everything at home requires a lot of Internet, whether it’s for the online learning that students need, for your work from home needs or even just to fight the boredom of sitting between four walls.
Acts of kindness all around
Therefore, Telecom Egypt’s We Internet took the initiative to try to help a little bit more by providing 20 percent more gigabytes for all landline Internet users.
And on a much brighter note, a few citizens took to the streets of Al-Minya to educate the less fortunate members of society on the importance of regular cleanliness to fight the spread of COVID-19 and providing them with alcohol sprays and sanitizers.
The new coronavirus may be a global pandemic, but at least we’re seeing the good in people a little more everyday to remind us what humanity is supposed to look like.
