Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

The Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT-Abu Dhabi), has issued strict health and safety guidelines and precautionary measures in preparation for the reopening of a number of museums and cultural sites in the emirate.

The openings form part of plans to help communities and visitors recover from the strain of the prolonged period of lockdown which was imposed in the last few months.

The guidelines, which require each site to operate at only 40 per cent visitor capacity to begin with, will help all cultural sites to follow the requirements that will support the visitor experience across the cultural site spaces, including social distancing rules, crowd control measures and regulations for employees and visitors in order to reopen safely.

"We believe that art and culture have the power to help people come together and heal and at DCT Abu Dhabi we are proud to be able to enable that through the work that we do, leveraging the power inherent in art to help re-engage the community and support its return to normalcy in these unprecedented times," said Saood Al Hosani, Acting Undersecretary of DCT Abu Dhabi.

"To enable this, and as per our mandate to provide support for the culture sector in Abu Dhabi, strict measures will be implemented at all our cultural sites and museums which will ensure that visitors will have a high degree of confidence that their health and safety will be of paramount importance when they visit, which means they can enjoy the sites with an enhanced peace of mind.

The guidelines set out stringent criteria for the sites to follow, to ensure members of the public can be assured their visit will be safe and secure. These steps highlight the strides Abu Dhabi has made in containing the crisis and we are looking forward to welcoming back culture and art-lovers to our attractions soon."

Before reopening to guests, all sites are required to conduct comprehensive risk assessments regarding ensuring the health and safety of everyone visiting the site, with a site-specific compliance monitoring procedure also put in place.

Once complete, the reopened sites will then have to ensure that visitors and employees respect the social distancing rule of 2 metres with a range of measures.

Each site will also have thermal cameras installed at the entrance, to ensure each person is going through the mandated thermal screening, including staff and visitors, with the safety of the community and public at the core of DCT Abu Dhabi's plans for site reopenings.

WAM