Hoi An allows eateries to reopen with safeguards

Restaurants and coffee shops reopened Monday in Hoi An, a popular tourism hotspot, with strict restrictions after the town went a month without new Covid-19 cases.

Restaurants, cafeterias, coffee shops, and roadside eateries can serve customers without exceeding half their covers and have to ensure pandemic prevention measures such as maintaining a distance of at least two meters between tables and each table having no more than four people.

The town of 100,000 people began less stringent social distancing on Monday under Directive 19, which prohibits gatherings of more than 20 people except in offices, schools and hospitals and requires people to maintain a distance of at least one meter.

It has been having fairly tough restrictions since July 31.

According to Quang Nam Province authorities, over 900 foreign tourists are stranded in Hoi An.