After a full year of intermittent observation of pandemic conditions, this research analyzes the way street life of neighborhoods in two Southeast Asian cities has adapted to government-intensified sanitation measures, scarcity of essential goods and services, and movement restrictions that characterize the persistence of the COVID-19 influenza in selected sites in and around Manila, in the Philippines and in Hanoi, Vietnam. This study describes how citizens negotiate the morbid geography–the reshaping of public space as well as its encompassed social, institutional and economic processes in response to the pervasive state of the pandemic – in relation to well-meaning but sometimes draconian government health regulations in the Global South. We draw on the dynamics of institutional strategy and citizen tactics as a theoretical lens, as informed by literature on coping and transgressive practices. Learning from comparable patterns of citizens' everyday life on the streets, even in countries with distinct administrative traditions, the study highlights the significance of agency under crisis and emphasizes the different meanings of public space for varied social groups. It suggests how urban planning and administration can be improved to prepare cities for future health emergencies and make them more resilient.