Customers shop at Nanxiang Mantou, a restaurant famous for its steamed meat-stuffed buns, in Shanghai.[Photo provided to China Daily]

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

Following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, many restaurants in the city had to offer delivery options for the first time to mitigate the loss in sales due to the ban on dine-in services.

Zhu Songtao, head chef of Shanghai Classical Hotel, says that he was first inspired to offer takeaway when a customer who had canceled his reservation asked if they offered delivery options.

After discussing with the hotel's executives, Zhu got the green light to do so. On Jan 27, the restaurant debuted its delivery menu for the first time in its 145-year history. Most of its customers then were residents from the same neighborhood, but as word of the restaurant's offerings spread, companies that resumed work on Feb 10 started making group orders.

The restaurant's lunch offering comprises three of its signature dishes plus rice and soup. Priced from 26 to 38 yuan ($3.70-5.40), the restaurant sold an average of 600 lunch boxes per day, says Zhu.

Seeing how more citizens now prefer to takeout instead of dine-in, many restaurants and stores in Shanghai have introduced a new element to areas where customers line up.

In front of the Guang Ming Cun restaurant on Huaihai Road, one can find yellow lines on the ground located a meter apart from one another, a measure taken to prevent customers from getting into close contact with others.