Stores in Guam are allowed to sell garden produce for food growing during the State of Preparedness 1 pandemic.
There was some confusion over whether gardening supplies were allowed to be sold as essential, and when one company asked public health “we notified them through our environmental health division that for food growing purposes they can open this section, but not for ornamental plants,” said Grace Bordallo of the Guam Department of Public Health, public information manager for the Guam’s COVID Incidents Section. ‘agency.
“If people are unclear, if the companies, the individuals who operated are unclear, they can contact the Environmental Health Division,” Bordallo said.
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Benson Hardware Guam’s Monito Co asked about restrictions on gardening supplies at the start of the new lockdown.
“We got approval from Public Health to sell land for food growing,” Co said. “We had stopped selling for a few days and checked with Public Health before we started selling again. “
Co believes the confusion over gardening supply sales stemmed from an anonymous complaint to public health, which prompted an official to stop by the store. But there was no order to halt sales as a result.
Co said sales of potting soil and other garden items were slow last week due to the halt in construction under the renewed PCOR1. This restriction has since been lifted.
Mike Wu, owner of the Guam Home Center in Dededo, said another store selling garden supplies had closed its gardening section prompted him to see an adviser, who told him the governor’s office had made it clear that selling gardening and other food-producing supplies was no problem.
The first lockdown, yes, we removed ornamental plants like palm trees, stuff like that,” Wu said.
Randy Cepeda of ERC Hardware Express, said the Dededo store has never had any confusion over selling gardening supplies and has continued to do so during the current lockdown.
This article originally appeared on Pacific Daily News: Food Production Gardening Supplies Allowed in PCOR1
