Hanoi (VNA) - All restaurants and cafes in Hanoi must strictlyfollow regulations on COVID-19 prevention or face closure, said ViceChairman of the municipal People’s Committee Ngo Van Quy.

Quymade the statement at a meeting of the city’s Steering Committee for COVID-19Prevention and Control on August 18.

Startingat 0:00 on August 19, food and beverage places must arrange seats at least ametre from each other and partitions are encouraged, Quy said.

Staffat restaurants and cafes must wear masks and measure customers’ temperatures.Hand sanitiser must be available while frequently-contacted objects shouldbe cleaned regularly.

Themove is believed to be necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

HoangDuc Hanh, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health, said the citywas home to many large and central-level hospitals. A large number of peoplecoming from other provinces for medical examination and treatment haveincreased the risk of infection.

Healso said that people’s compliance with disease prevention measures at themoment was not as good as in the previous period, especially in restaurants.

Asa result, the risk of infection from hospitals and restaurants in the comingdays was very high.

DeputyDirector of the Hanoi Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Truong Quang Vietagreed, saying some people had become complacent and ignored prevention measures.

Inspectionsby the CDC had found mask-wearing and disinfection measures in offices hadnot been conducted thoroughly.

Someoffices had not devised a response plan if an infection was detected in theworkplace.

NguyenSy Truong, Vice President of the city’s Fatherland Front Committee, saidlocalities should be decisive in encouraging people not to go out unless it wasreally necessary and those who didn’t wear masks in public places must bestrictly dealt with.

“Thewhole community will suffer if just a few people do not comply with diseaseprevention measures. To prevent the spread of the disease depends largely onpeople’s awareness,” he said.

Vietsuggested COVID-19 testing should be performed on the elderly in nursing homesand patients in intensive care or those with underlying conditions includingheart disease or stroke.

Quysaid COVID-19 was still under control in the city. However, he said, ifprevention work in hospitals was not good enough, then cross-infection would bea problem.

Theremight be more cases in Hanoi but the risk of a widespread outbreak was nothigh, he said.

Quyasked districts and agencies to continue to observe rules on COVID-19prevention measures.

Localresidents should be advised not to gather in groups of more than 30 people inpublic places and visit the health facilities if they have suchsymptoms as high fever and difficulty in breathing.

Itis reported that more than 100,000 people have returned from Da Nang – aCOVID-19 hotspot - to Hanoi, including some 77,150 returnees from July 15. 

Thecity has carried out quick testing for more than 75,100 people and PCR, areal-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, testing for 50,602others. The city is striving to quickly complete the implementation of RT-PCTtesting for all people who visited Da Nang and returned to Hanoi from July15-29 to August 20.

Hanoihas recorded 33 COVID-19 cases since July 25. Of those, 10 are localinfections and the remaining are imported cases who are quarantined uponarrival./.