Lockdown 4.0: Vijayawada limps back to work with relaxations

City has 34 containment and 30 non-containment zones; a few shops, establishments open in unaffected areas
A salesman showing air-conditioners to public in Vijayawada on Thursday.
A salesman showing air-conditioners to public in Vijayawada on Thursday.

VIJAYAWADA: Many shops and establishments in non-containment clusters in the city opened on Thursday after being shut for almost 60 days in the wake of lockdown enforced to contain the spread of COVID-19. However, the shops at city’s business hubs Besant Road and One Town, remained close as localities adjacent to them are in containment clusters as per the geographical areas denotified by the district administration on Wednesday.

In its guidelines issued by the district administration, permission was given to the traders of non-essential standalone shops like sanitary ware, hardware, electrical goods and book stores to carry out business between 7 am and 7 pm in the non-containment clusters in the city. Some of the shopkeepers at Patamata, Satyanarayanapuram, MG Road and Governorpet have opened their shops to take up cleaning activity and a few of them at Governorpet said they are still in a dilemma whether to open shops even after relaxation as police personnel directed them to close their shops as one of the wards in the locality comes under the purview of containment zone.

At Eluru Road, though the hardware shops were opened, public in limited numbers thronged the premises to enquire about the prices of air coolers and air-conditioners. “Every year at this time, electronic shops in the city buzz with activity, as public purchase air-conditioners, refrigerators and air coolers to beat the heat in summer. However, due to the enforcement of lockdown, our business has taken a severe beating,” said K Shyam Prasad, sales manager at an electronic shop. 

He further said that they are hoping their business will improve as there will be huge demand among the public for electronic goods like refrigerators, air-conditioners and coolers as the temperatures will soar in the coming days. G Simhachalam, who runs an electronics repair shop on  Eluru Road, said, “The lockdown wreaked havoc on our business. But with the relaxations given by the authorities, public in limited numbers started thronging our premises to get their air coolers and air-conditioners repaired.” 
Meanwhile, VMC has denotified the containment and non-containment zones under its purview. 

Daily updates on containment zone
Public can verify daily updates on containment zone details at vmc.ap.gov.in at 9 am. As per the guidelines, the containment zones are classified as core and buffer areas. No economic activity is permitted except medical shops in the core areas. In buffer areas, no shops were permitted to open except essential services. Medical shops, banks, mobile shops, rythu bazars, groceries and vegetables as per lockdown 4.0 norms with the time frame notified by the district administration

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