Coronavirus food supply: Shops selling essential items in Maharashtra to remain open 24x7

Shops selling essential commodities will be allowed to stay open 24 hours of the day in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced on Thursday evening. The decision was taken to stop crowding at shops and marketplaces amid the lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic, said a statement from his office.

Thackeray held discussions with senior officials who are in charge of special control room for coronavirus set up at the Mantralaya (state secretariat) about how to ensure smooth supply of essential goods earlier in the day, it added. The shop-keepers, meanwhile, will have to ensure that social distancing is maintained and rules about hygiene and sanitizing are followed, the CMO statement said.

Maharashtra has the highest number of cases in the country. Eight more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra on Thursday, taking the number of COVID-19 patients in the state to 130.

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A 40-year-old man, admitted to a private hospital in Pune, was confirmed to have contracted the infection. Besides, three women from a family in Sangli district were also confirmed to have been infected. Nine other members of the family have already tested positive for the disease, officials said. All of them have travel history to foreign country.

Also, a woman in Kolhapur was also confirmed to have contracted the infection, said divisional commissionner Deepak Mhaisekar.

The state chief minister took to Twitter to apprise people about the steps being taken to curb coronavirus and has also assured his Punjab and Jharkhand counterparts that people from their states stranded here are being looked after. Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amrinder Singh and his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren got in touch with Thackeray over the last two days on Twitter.