Nearly one month after the city bringing life back to the new normal state, people are gradually adapting to the current pandemic situation.
Before the pandemic, the Vinh Khanh Food Street in District 4’s Ward 8 was often crowded with visitors but it now sees few stores selling fresh seafood.
Other food streets including the area located on the Road No.10 in District 6’s Ward 13 and the Lang Oc in the alley No.450 on Duong Ba Trac Street in District 8’s Ward 1 are similar to Vinh Khanh with a small number of stores reopened instead of more than 200 stalls nearly fully booked as normal day. Shops must move from in-person to online sales via social platforms, such as Zalo and Facebook.
The municipal authorities has allowed restaurants and eateries to restart dine-in services since October 28 but banned them offering alcoholic drinks except for restaurants in District 7 and Thu Duc City while most of customers tend to drink at shops that serve beer on the street.
Therefore only shops selling meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, such as pho (beef noddle soup), hu tiu (rice noodle), bun (Rice Vermicelli), and coffee shops have a small number of visitors.
At present, 120 among 134 traditional markets in the city have resumed activities under strict safety preventive measures. Under guidance on infection prevention and control for Covid-19, arrivals required to take health declaration while traders have to receive at least one dose of vaccine and get tested for Covid-19 once in three days. Partitions must be installed between sellers and buyers to help prevent the spread of virus. However, only 50 percent of the stalls have reopened.
Head of the management board of the Da Kao market in District 1 Truong Quang Nghia said that traders of the market must have vaccination certificate and negative test result for Covid-19, take periodic Covid-19 test, install partitions surrounding their stalls, keep a safe distance, daily clean and disinfect the workplace.
Only outside market shops are still trading. Customers are afraid of shopping at inner market stalls because of taking health declaration, keeping safe distance in the narrow space.
Ben Thanh markets and others, such as as Hoa Hung in District 10, Nguyen Van Troi in District 3, Ba Chieu and Thi Nghe in Binh Thanh District, Xom Chieu in District 4, Binh Tay in District 6, Tan Binh in Tan Binh Ditrsict, An Dong in District 5, along with markets in suburban districts of Hoc Mon and Binh Chanhh have been unable to find customers.
Additionally, an explosion of illegal markets has been seen around traditional markets. Trade activities in these temporary markets are still bustling, making it difficult for traders in the wholesale market to compete.
Traders of traditional markets and shopping malls hope the Covid-19 pandemic will be drastically controlled, creating favorable conditions for people to recover business activities when the year-end shopping season is coming.
