Residents across Ho Chi Minh City woke up on Thursday morning excited to finally be able to visit their favorite restaurants for some delicious breakfasts following a months-long ban on sit-down service due to COVID-19.

Owners and employees at eateries throughout the city began cleaning their tables and preparing their kitchens early in the morning to get ready for dine-in customers, signs of a 'new normal,' or living safely with the coronavirus.

“A bowl of pho is best served hot," said Huynh Tran, an employee of a pho restaurant in Tan Binh District.

"You have to eat the dish right at the restaurant to be able to taste every flavor.”

Tran Thi Loan, a local resident, said she decided to wake up earlier than usual so that she could be the first to arrive at this pho restaurant.

“The venue isn’t so crowded early in the morning, and therefore it’s safer,” Loan added.

Other restaurants specializing in Vietnamese breakfast staples, including bun bo (beef noodle soup) and com tam (broken rice), as well as coffee shops, were also open to serve white-collar workers on their way to work and locals who had just finished morning exercises.

Phan Thi Thanh Huong, a bun bo vendor in Binh Thanh Dristrict, greeted each customer with a resounding “Good morning! What would you like to order?”

Huong said many of her patrons had called to confirm whether she would reopen.

“I am happy but also worried because the virus is still out there," Huong admitted.

"Therefore, following pandemic prevention and control regulations is among my top priorities.”

As part of pandemic response measures, multiple eateries installed partitions on tables and asked customers to fill out electronic health declarations before entry.

Other restaurants checked customers’ vaccine passes and reminded them to socially distance.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has allowed local F&B establishments to offer sit-down service from Thursday following a ban that lasted for about five months due to the complicated COVID-19 pandemic.

Eateries have to close before 9:00 pm, operate at 50 percent of their capacity, and meet safety criteria promulgated by the municipal steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control.

City authorities required restaurants and diners to stop offering in-person services in May to stall transmissions that have decelerated over the past few weeks owing to social distancing measures and a nationwide vaccination campaign.

The southern metropolis has been the hardest-hit locality in the country since the fourth outbreak began on April 27 with over 428,000 local infections.

Local authorities have been loosening restrictions since the beginning of this month after vaccinating the majority of the city’s adult population and achieving optimistic results in prevention and control efforts.

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