Vietnamese Eateries Affected By KTV Cluster: “We Went From Full House To 5 Customers”
“We’re running [legal] businesses, obeying the law. We hope to be treated fairly,” says a Vietnamese restaurant owner.
The current KTV lounge cluster (87 new Covid-19 cases as of July 15) has unleashed an unfortunate chain reaction in the F&B world. It has led to the temporary closure of Toa Payoh Lor 5 Food Centre after a stall assistant at a satay stall there tested positive for the virus. It also caused a dip in business at some Vietnamese eateries that 8days.sg reached out to. The index case for this cluster, or patient zero, is a Vietnamese woman on a short-term visit pass who frequented several KTV lounges (which supposedly pivoted to become eateries) as a social hostess. However, more hostesses in this cluster reportedly include other nationalities too.
This comes just a few days after diners were allowed to gather once again in groups of up to five. Minister for Health and co-chair of the Covid-19 multi-ministerial task force Ong Ye Kung announced yesterday that there are presently no plans to reverse the relaxation of rules, given that vaccination rates are now higher.