India and Pakistan ease coronavirus restrictions for a few small businesses
26 April, 2020
India allowed shops in residential areas to reopen from on Saturday, greater than a month following the country went into lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, federal and state officials said.
The federal home ministry said late on Friday that retailers could resume operations with the staff numbers reduced by half as long as employees wore masks and gloves and appropriate social distancing was maintained.
The sale of liquor and other non-essential items continues to be banned no shops in large market places or multi-brand and single-brand malls will be permitted to reopen until May 3.
Members of industry groups welcomed the partial resumption of activity but said a sizable number of businesses faced bottlenecks because of a lack of recycleables and police restrictions on the movement of workers.
India has reported 24,942 cases of COVID-19, the condition due to the coronavirus, and 779 deaths. The authorities have create teams to concentrate on compliance with lockdown measures.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the president of the key opposition Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, said smaller businesses faced financial ruin and job losses because of the absence of any major support from the federal government.
She called for a fiscal package of at least one trillion rupees (£10.5 billion) to protect wages of employees in smaller businesses and also to provide credit guarantees on loans.
"Each day of the lockdown comes at a price of 30,000 crore to the sector," she said.
In Modi's home state of Gujarat, authorities allowed software and IT companies to start out operations on Saturday with up to 50 % of their staff while some industry bodies urged members to get started on with only 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the workforce.
"It is crucial in order to avoid a rush of employees to offices to avoid spread of coronavirus," said Maulik Bhansali, chairman of Gujarat Electronics and Software Industries Association.
Authorities in the eastern state of Odhisha allowed stranded labourers to travel within the state for work.
'SMART LOCKDOWN'
In Pakistan, the federal government extended a nationwide lockdown until May 9. However, it is switching to a "smart lockdown" from Saturday with targeted tracking and tracing of cases while allowing some commercial and commercial activities to resume under safety guidelines.
"Isolating these cases and their contacts will improve our capability to support the disease alongside allowing the economy to function and people to get employment," said planning minister Asad Umar, who oversees Pakistan's coronavirus response body.
"This upcoming month of Ramadan will be decisive," he said, emphasising that sticking with the government's virus containment measures would allow other areas of the economy to restart.
Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Ahmedabad
Prayer congregations for Ramadan are also allowed in Pakistan with the exception of the southern province of Sindh, where doctors have warned the virus could spread rapidly.
In Karachi, the capital of Sindh and Pakistan's major city, most mosques were closed for Ramadan evening prayer gatherings, which began on Friday.
Bangladesh extended its nationwide lockdown to May 5 and ordered mosques to restrict attendance at Ramadan evening prayers to 12 people.
Sri Lanka extended the temporary suspension of SriLankan Airlines to May 15, and said requests from its migrant workers to return to the united states will be considered only following the eradication of coronavirus cases in the country.
Sri Lanka has a lot more than 1.2 million persons working abroad, mainly in the centre East, Italy and South Korea.
"Please usually do not put Sri Lankan government unnecessarily in a hard situation and if you love your motherland, please remain safe in wherever you are." said Kamal Ratwatte, chairman of Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment in a statement.
Listed below are official government figures on the spread of the coronavirus in South Asia:
* India has reported 24,942 cases, including 779 deaths
* Pakistan has reported 11,940 cases, including 253 deaths
* Afghanistan has reported 1464 cases, including 47 deaths
* Sri Lanka has reported 435 cases, including seven deaths
* Bangladesh has reported 4,998 cases, including 140 deaths
* Maldives has reported 34 cases and no deaths
* Nepal has reported 49 cases no deaths
* Bhutan has reported seven cases no deaths
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