Bars and discos in Ho Chi Minh City were allowed to resume operations from 6:00 pm on Monday after having been shut down for over a month to prevent COVID-19 spread, the municipal People’s Committee said in a fiat the same day.

The operators of all 180 bars and discos in the city are required to continue taking preventative measures like surface disinfecting and hand sanitizing after reopening, according to an urgent document signed by Le Thanh Liem, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee.

On July 31, city officials ordered non-essential businesses like bars and discos to close down after the resurgence of the novel coronavirus in Da Nang, a touristy city on the central coast, a week earlier.

These services were also shuttered in mid-March before they were permitted to open again in mid-May, given the peak of the pandemic in Vietnam.

Deputy chairman Liem also said in the document that crowded events such as festivals, fairs, trade promotion conferences, and other meetings can now be organized as long as COVID-19 prevention measures are taken.

Everyone should not be complacent and should adapt to ‘a new normal’ where life goes on amid the global pandemic.

People are asked to don face masks whenever leaving the house, visiting public places, and using public transportation.

They are advised to frequently wash or sanitize their hands; avoid large crowds outside public offices, schools, and hospitals; and maintain a physical distance in social interactions.

Ho Chi Minh City has spent 40 days detecting zero local coronavirus cases, according to statistics.

The city has recorded 77 infections, including 15 domestic and imported cases since the re-emergence of the virus in late July, as yet. Only seven are in treatment at the time of writing.

Vietnam started riding a new wave of COVID-19 infections on July 25, when Da Nang confirmed the first community transmission after the country had gone 99 days without documenting any domestic case, according to the Ministry of Health.

A total of 551 domestic cases have been recorded since then, most traced back to the central beach city.

It has logged 1,049 coronavirus cases, including 691 local infections, since the virus first hit in January, with 843 patients having recovered and 35 having died as of Monday afternoon.

Da Nang has recorded no community-based infections for a week, evidence that the virus has been kept at bay in the beach city thanks to aggressive contact tracing for over a month.

On a national scale, Vietnam has documented zero locally-transmitted cases for four consecutive days.

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