Eateries 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.

Since resuming its dine-in service on March 9, Nanxiang Mantou, 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 head chef You Yuming, the restaurant has been delivering an average of 500 boxes of xiaolongbao (steamed meat buns) every day for the past weeks.

"The business in the first week since we reopened has been pretty good," You says.

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.