Telangana lockdown: Essential shops, public transport to be open; govt offices to work at 33% capacity

A lockdown to contain in the state of Telangana has started on Wednesday, 12 May from 10 am. It will go on for 10 days, till 21 May.

The authorities have decided to keep the shops of essential items like ration shops functional from 6 am to 10 am. The decision was taken at a meeting headed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday, 11 May, according to a report in The News Minute.

State transport buses and metro trains will be functional for four hours during the lockdown from 6 am to 10 am. Gas filling services will be available as per usual. Along with essential services, liquor shops will also operate between 6 am to 10 am.

During the lockdown, 20 people can attend funerals while 40 people will be allowed at weddings with prior permission.

Media professionals will be exempted from the lockdown. Government offices will operate at 33 percent of their capacity. Professionals working in the healthcare sector will be given special passes to travel, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Before the lockdown ends on 21 May, another cabinet meeting will be held on 20 May to take a review of the situation.

All the southern states will be under lockdown from 12 May except for Andhra Pradesh which has a partial lockdown. Kerala is under lockdown till 16 May while Tamil Nadu and Karnataka will have the lockdown till 24 May.

While announcing the lockdown on Twitter, CMO Telangana also shared that the state has decided to invite global tenders in order to procure the vaccine.

According to the official COVID portal of the Telangana government, as of 11 May, the state has around 60,000 active cases.