Dinh Tien Dung, secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, said the tickets are necessary to maintain social distancing measures and requested they be distributed citywide.

The decision was made as the capital entered its fourth day under a two-week social distancing order starting July 24, with Dung remarking the food stamp policy was "timely and widely supported by the people."

The social distancing order, issued under Directive 16, requires residents to stay home and only go out for basic necessities like buying food or medicines or to work at factories or businesses allowed to operate.

People must stay at least two meters apart from each other. No more than two people can gather together in public apart from workplaces, schools or hospitals. Daily online medical declarations are required.

Authorities need to erect enough Covid-19 checkpoints to ensure adequate social distancing measures, said Dung, adding they need to prepare infrastructure, medical equipment and workforces to handle any scenario should the coronavirus persist.

Previously on Monday, several wards in Tay Ho District began receiving tickets for people to go out and purchase food every other day and on Sunday, for at most one hour a day.

The capital has recorded 1,007 Covid-19 cases so far in the coronavirus wave that struck Vietnam in late April. Several past cases were recorded within its locked down hospitals at the time.