The HCM City Book Pedestrian Street on Nguyễn Văn Bình Street in District 1 is expected to welcome visitors soon. Photo courtesy of the book street company

HCM CITY -- The HCM City Book Pedestrian Street on Nguyễn Văn Bình Street in District 1 is preparing to re-open after closing for four months due to the fourth wave of COVID-19.

Lê Hoàng, director of the HCM City Book Street Company, said: “We are working on safety rating criteria to submit the city Department of Information and Communication. We expect to receive operating certificate soon, so we can open the book street this weekend or early next week.”

The company is working with publishing houses and book companies to do the cleaning and prepare books to welcome visitors and offer activities related to reading culture.

All staff and visitors must be vaccinated with one or two doses and strictly comply with the Ministry of Health’s 5K protocol.

The book street suspended operation on May 28 under the Department of Information and Communications’ guidelines on pandemic prevention and control.

The company renovated stalls, offices, stages and other facilities during the suspension.

It set up a space for children, as well as display areas for family books, reference books for students and teachers, and books for business.

It also did checks on electrical safety and fire prevention, and trimmed tree branches to ensure safety.

The company has cooperated with the southern representative agency of the Việt Nam Publishers’ Association, and the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union of HCM City to launch the programme “Sách trao tay - Học ngày giãn cách” (Books for Learning during Social Distancing Days).

The programme has given away tens of thousands of copies of 2,500 book titles since mid-July. They include comics and colouring books for children, novels, and medical, skills and reference books for teenagers and adults.

It has also provided a library of more than 2,000 titles of audiobooks and e-books for free downloading via applications Voiz FM and Waka.

Despite the pandemic, the book street earned turnover of VNĐ15.5 billion (US$682,000) in the first six months of 2021, an increase of 4 per cent compared to the same period in 2020.

More than 352,800 books on different topics were sold during the period, up 19 per cent over the same period last year.-- VNS