A food shop offering takeaways in Hanoi's Ba Dinh District

In the capital of Hanoi, as restrictions ease, residents can now travel within the city without travel permits. They are also allowed to use essential services such as visiting barber’s and hairdresser’s, going shopping at supermarkets, having their bikes and cars repaired, and buying takeaways. The difference is that such services are reopened under the new normal, meaning they have to strictly follow the Ministry of Health’s guidelines on virus transmission prevention.

The northern province of Quang Ninh has also permitted the reopening of restaurants, food shops, tourist sites and beaches to local residents with safety measures in place.

Life is also returning to normal in areas that where were once hotspots in the southern region with Binh Duong Province having started to relax social distancing and issued a three-stage economic recovery roadmap from September 15 to December 31, with the degree of socio-economic reopening corresponding to the virus control results.

In neighbouring Ho Chi Minh City, people are allowed to go for groceries once a week in District 7, Cu Chi District and Can Gio District, where the outbreak has essentially been put under control. Enterprises and household businesses in several areas are permitted to reopen in compliance with the safety criteria set by the municipal government.

Reopening is the first step of the economic recovery process as growth drivers such as public investment, manufacturing and export will now be able to run smoothly after a period of being restrained due to social distancing. Enterprises consider this as a vital moment as their endurance has reached the bearable limit.

At this time, if the bottlenecks are removed one day earlier, it could help enterprises remain in the game, but if it happens one day too late, they could go bust. Therefore, it is highly important for the government and functional authorities to promptly deal with the business community’s recommendations. They are longing for resumption of manufacturing to meet the year-end peak.

The whole world is learning how to adapt to the pandemic and seek ways to stand up and escape from the clouds of COVID-19. Each country will reopen the economy depending on their actual situation. For Vietnam, it is necessary to have a consistent policy from the central level and close coordination of local governments in determining the criteria for reopening businesses and the response in dealing with new outbreaks.