They must comply with Covid-19 prevention guidelines, Hanoi vice-chairman Chu Xuan Dung said Monday.

The city requires restaurants to ensure social distancing between customers and have dividers between seats. Establishments can’t fill more than 50 percent of their seating capacity and have no more than 20 people in a venue at a time. They also have to close before 9 p.m. every day. Bar, pubs and draught beer venues are only allowed to sell takeaways.

The capital had shut down non-essential businesses and services starting April 29, beginning with karaoke parlors and bars, then restaurants and cafes and later, cinemas, gym and barber shops.

Tran Dac Phu, former head of the General Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health, warned last Saturday that outbreaks were still happening in the country, and Hanoi could still be harboring infected cases within the community.

"The reopening process needs to be done carefully along with strict supervision, or we would return to square one," he said.

Hanoi has recorded 465 local Covid-19 cases in Vietnam's latest coronavirus wave, including 148 cases in two locked down hospitals.

Since April 27, Vietnam has recorded 10,078 community transmissions in 42 cities and provinces.