HCMC – The HCMC Food Safety Management Board has withdrawn its proposal to ban restaurants in HCMC from offering alcoholic drinks and using air conditioners in closed spaces when they resume dine-in services.
Pham Khanh Phong Lan, head of the board, said today, October 27, that the board had submitted a plan to the municipal government with four criteria to assess whether restaurants were fit to restart indoor dining services, instead of six criteria as proposed earlier, the local media reported.
Specifically, restaurants must own a certificate showing they meet all food safety requirements and apply for a QR code at antoan-covid.tphcm.gov.vn.
They must have soap or hand sanitizers available for all employees, guests and delivery persons to use.
Depending on the Covid situation, restaurants will have to restrict the number of workers and guests.
In addition, all restaurant employees, guests, delivery persons and others would have to comply with anti-pandemic measures such as wearing face masks, washing hands, keeping a safe physical distance from each other and presenting a QR code showing their health declaration and vaccination status.
Lan said the ban on offering alcoholic drinks in restaurants, if approved, can only be applied for a short period. The HCMC government will decide to apply the ban depending on the developments of the pandemic.
On October 24, the HCMC Food Safety Management Board sent the city government a proposed plan detailing six criteria for restaurants.
Regarding the ban on alcoholic drinks, the board explained that guests drinking alcohol are more inclined to come into close contact with one another, posing a high risk of Covid transmission.
