Restaurants take special measures against virus as they reopen

With the novel coronavirus outbreak coming under control in Shanghai, more and more restaurants have been reopening to the public, albeit with some changes introduced.

Since resuming its dine-in service on March 9, NanxiangMantou, a restaurant famous for its steamed meat-stuffed buns, has capped its customer limit at 70 percent of usual capacity and reconfigured its dining hall so that there is now more space between tables.

Before the resumption of its dine-in service, the restaurant only made buns for delivery. According to You, the restaurant has been delivering an average of 500 boxes of xiaolong (steamed meat buns) every day for the past weeks.

"The business in the first week since we reopened has been pretty good," said You Yumin, the head chef of the restaurant.

Before coming into the restaurant, customers are requested to show their "health status code", a QR code with three color classifications —green, yellow and red. The code one gets is determined by his or her travel history and health declaration details.

Having a green code means that one is very unlikely to be infected, while yellow and red mean higher risks of infection. Customers with yellow and red codes will be denied entry to the restaurant.

Customers also need to undergo temperature checks and fill in their contact information in case the health authorities need to conduct epidemiological investigations.

In a guideline issued by the Shanghai Restaurants and Cuisine Association on March 10, all restaurants in the city are required to provide chopsticks and spoons at each table, as well as hand sanitizer for customers. Restaurant staff are also required to wear masks and register their temperatures in the morning and afternoon every day.