Hyderabad: After relaxation in timings amid COVID-induced lockdown in Telangana, fewer people were seen in the markets in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
This came as the relaxation timings in the state have been extended to 7 hours daily from 6 am to 1 pm instead of only four hours from 6 am to 10 am like before the new rules are implemented.
Speaking to ANI, Venu Gopal, a customer at the mandi said, “The relaxation time given in the lockdown earlier was really less, due to which the markets got crowded. People rushed to get essential commodities within a small time frame. Now it is better.”
A vendor, Narshigh also echoed a similar opinion. He said that markets used to be crowded when there was only 4 hours of relaxation. “There were more chances of transmission of the virus before,” he said.
The lockdown in Telangana, which was earlier scheduled to end on May 31, was extended by another 10 days on Sunday but some relaxations in the timings have been given by the state government.
As per the state health department, Telangana has 33,254 active Covid-19 cases. As many as 5,80,844 cases and 3,296 related deaths have been recorded in the state so far.