Bearing losses and facing difficulty in paying employees are economic shocks that corporate houses are dealing with when their businesses closed down since the start of this outbreak.

However, some say they would rather incur the loss, endure the hardships and reopen with strict safety measures than have the pandemic spiral out of control.

Suva Retailers Association President, Jitesh Patel says with businesses working to be compliant with safety measures for business continuity, there is still concern over the large number of people flocking to the City.

“In a way that we want customers to stay home and do their shopping from home, most of the businesses are doing deliveries as well. Like in the City we still see people coming to the City want to do their shopping, like they use to before, but we have to understand we are in the new normal.”

Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation, CEO Kameli Batiweti says its members understand the pain that needs to be endured as Fiji works to battle this deadly virus.

“Let’s go through the treatment, endure the treatment and once we are done, as we come out of it successfully, let’s now launch the businesses but ensuring that we all adhere to the protocols that we have promised the Ministry.”

A number of businesses that have been approved to operate by the Ministry of Trade and Commerce have started the process of having online shopping and on-call shopping, before working to open its doors to customers in a COVID safe environment after more than 5 weeks of closure.