Hanoi authorities will ease Covid-19 restrictions as of 12:00 pm on September 16 for Covid-19 free districts, the municipal People's Committee said in a document issued today [September 15].

A restaurant owner in Hanoi glues a notice for selling take-away only. Photo: The Hanoi Times

According to the Hanoi Department of Health’s report, as of September 14, Hanoi has basically put the pandemic under control. Specifically, the number of cases in the community over the past three weeks has tended to decrease. The capital city has finished testing its entire population through large-scale screening and has administered the first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine for all people aged over 18.

There remains only one district at very high-risk of coronavirus infection (Thanh Xuan), two districts at high-risk (Hoang Mai and Dong Da), nine at-risk districts (Ba Dinh, Gia Lam, Hai Ba Trung, Hoai Duc, Hoan Kiem, Ha Dong, Thanh Tri, Thuong Tin, Dan Phuong) and the remaining 18 districts are Covid-19 free.

Therefore, the municipal government has decided to relax social distancing rules for a number of services, depending on the risk classification of different areas, including:

Businesses providing stationery, books, equipment, and school materials;

Businesses providing repairing services for vehicles, electronics, refrigeration, and household appliances;

Restaurants are allowed to resume operations with precautionary measures in place. They have to close before 9:00 pm daily and are only allowed for providing take-out food.

The municipal People's Committee said that the operation of non-essential services, including spas, massage parlors, cinemas and theatres, gyms, and stadiums, in Hanoi will be resumed depending on the pandemic evolution. The suspension of non-essential services in the city began on July 24.

The capital city has recorded 4,088 community cases of Covid-19 since the fourth wave began late April and it has applied a series of social distancing measures to curb the coronavirus spread.