All non-essential services in Hanoi will be halted from Monday as the capital city takes  more stringent social distancing measures to curb a spike in community cases. A dispatch signed by municipal Chairman Chu Ngoc Anh  on Sunday also requires residents to stay at home and only go out when really necessary such as emergencies, buying food or medicines and working in factories and businesses allowed to operate.

Residents are asked to avoid gatherings of more than five people outside the workplaces, schools and hospitals, and fill in health declarations on the website www.tokhaiyte.vn or apps Ncovi and Bluezone. In public places, masks are mandatory and people must maintain a distance of two metres.

Agencies, businesses, including foreign-invested ones, were urged to outline online working or work-in-shift plans.

Shopping malls, supermarkets, wholesale and wet markets in the city only sell necessities. Public transport means must reduce seats by half.

Hanoi has recorded more than 420 infections since the fourth wave of COVID-19 hit Vietnam in late April.

Source: VOV5