Cinemas in HCM City reopen today with a schedule of Hollywood and Vietnamese films, six months after social distancing started in late April.

HCM City People’s Committee on November 18 announced the immediate shut-down of bars, karaoke parlours, spas, and massage venues due to complicated developments of the COVID-19 outbreak in the city.

Cinemas located in the Covid-19 alert levels 1, 2, 3 in HCMC will be allowed to reopen to fully vaccinated individuals starting on November 19. Film distributors are planning a mass release of blockbuster movies.

HCM City has agreed to reopen entertainment venues, as the southern hub adapts to the ‘new normal’ situation.

The way people buy food in HCM City has changed after a period of social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with more food products bought online, according to online sellers.

HCM City authorities have allowed venues like bars, cinemas and massage parlors to resume full operation in districts of alert level 1, 2, 3 except areas of alert level 4 under a temporary decision issued on November 15.

Hu tieu (noodle soup), milk tea, broken rice, snails and fried fish balls – the common dishes of Vietnamese – are being sold at shops on HCM City’s Bui Vien Street.

Ho Chi Minh City has established eight temporary hospitals with nearly 300 beds each to treat moderately ill COVID-19 patients and people with underlying medical conditions as the number of COVID-19 cases rises.

Nearly 1,600 workers at a supermarket chain tested positive for coronavirus when the fourth Covid wave in HCM City reached its peak over the summer. One of them died.

HCM City authorities will provide land to enterprises to build housing near industrial parks and export processing zones for workers. 

The government is promoting disbursement of public investment, considering it one of the driving forces to boost the pandemic-hit economy.

HCM City will continue to extend the due date of collecting fees for using seaports and sea border gates infrastructure works in the city until April 1, 2022.

Four land lots with a total area of over 30,000 square meters in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area in HCMC’s Thu Duc City will be auctioned on December 3 with a starting price of VND5.3 trillion. 

Districts in HCM City are looking into setting up designated areas for food street vendors in an effort to ensure pandemic safety and order on the streets.

Of nearly 210,000 hectares of natural area of HCM City, there are 111,875 hectares of agriculture land and 96,634 ha of non-agricultural land.

Central Market - the famous underground market in Ho Chi Minh City - is experiencing quiet days.

Secretary of HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen has ordered the Sai Gon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) Management Board to place pandemic prevention and protection of workers’ heath as its top priority under the “new normal”.

Many retailers in HCM City have adapted after strict social distancing measures, combining local and foreign brands.

A requiem next Thursday (November 18) in HCM City will be held in remembrance of people who died of COVID during the fourth pandemic wave that has claimed more than 16,800 people in the city.

The number of COVID-19 cases in HCM City has increased in districts with industrial parks, according to the city's Department of Health.