NAGPUR: The district, which had been in Level 1 since the unlock system was introduced in June first week, has moved into Level 3 — that allows only a few relaxations — due to the revised guidelines issued by the state government on Friday.
Municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B and collector Ravindra Thakre told TOI that from June 28 essential, non-essential shops, private offices, gyms etc will have to shut at 4pm and not 8pm.
Restaurants and bars will be impacted the most as they too will have shut at 4 pm as against 11pm.
Home delivery will be allowed till 10 pm.
According to sources, though malls are not allowed under level 3, authorities here have permitted them till 4pm citing weekly test positivity rate (TPR) of below 1% as on June 24.
The final orders are expected on Saturday.
President of Chamber of Associations of Maharashtra Industry and Trade (CAMIT) Dipen Agrawal told TOI that the latest decision is not good for traders.
“Government should continue with relaxations given as per the level system.
It was introduced after a scientific study following repeated demand from us to lift restrictions,” he said.
Agrawal said the administration has taken a decision without any proper study.
“Traders cannot survive if shops are not allowed till 9pm and restrictions continue for more months even when weekly test positivity rate is below 5%.
Restrictions can be imposed if cases increase,” he said.
Hotelier Jasbir Singh Arora said it is a big blow to the industry.
“When cases had started rising here, lockdown was imposed in the district.
At that time there were no restrictions in other parts of the state.
Now, when mutant variant was found and cases increased in some parts of the state, the government has imposed restrictions across the state,” said Arora.
He wanted markets to be allowed to can remain open till 4pm and restaurants from 4pm to 12 midnight.
“This will ensure staggering of rush.
Staff of many of the restaurants are vaccinated and also promptly going for tests in case of any symptoms,” he said.
The state had introduced the levels of restrictions/relaxations based on two parameters — weekly TPR and occupancy of oxygen beds — in the beginning of June.
The district’s weekly TPR was 3.86% and occupancy of oxygen beds was 8.13% between May 28 to June 3, making it eligible for full relaxations under level 1.
But the district continued with some restrictions and allowed commercial activities till 5pm from June 7.
In second week between June 4 and 10, weekly TPR declined to 3.13% and occupancy of oxygen beds to 3.93%.
Still, timings were not increased in the subsequent week.
After weekly TPR further dipped to 1.25% and occupancy of oxygen beds to 2.17% between June 11 and 17, the civic chief and collector increased timings of commercial activities till 8pm and also allowed coaching classes to reopen.