Trade department proposes HCMC resumes on-site dining

By Huu Cong October 19, 2021 | 05:59 am PT

Shippers wait outside a coffee shop for their customers' takeaway drinks in downtown HCMC, October 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

The HCMC trade department suggested Tuesday that the administration allows eateries to serve customers on their premises apart from providing takeaways.

The on-site service should not include alcoholic drinks, the Department of Industry and Trade said.

It proposed that eateries that meet Covid safety criteria are allowed to open until 9 p.m. and serve people at not more than half their maximum capacity and not more than two people at one table, with tables placed at least two meters apart.

HCMC has allowed eateries to resume delivery services from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., every day, starting Sept. 8, after suspending them for nearly two months.

The trade department said the city should allow more activities to resume, given its high vaccination rate. Around 5.5 million people in HCMC, or more than 75 percent of its adult population, have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, it noted.