Coronavirus pandemic: Supreme Court suggests home delivery or indirect sale of liquor

Team Suno Neta Friday 8th of May 2020 11:48 PM

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, suggested the state governments that they may consider allowing home delivery of liquor or its indirect sale to prevent crowds from gathering at liquor shops and throwing caution to the wind in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Delhi and other places in the country witnessed chaotic scenes when liquor shops were allowed to open, on Monday, after a gap of over one month. All social distancing norms to prevent the spread of Covid-19 went for a toss.

The court was hearing a public-interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate G Natarajan to ban the sale of liquor as people were ready to put their lives at risk by not adhering to social distancing norms for buying alcohol.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said the court was not inclined to entertain the PIL. However, observed that to keep people safe from passing the virus to one another, the state governments could consider indirect or online sale of liquor.

Maharashtra, Gujarat Covid-19 situation grave

Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 cases crossed 59,500 and the death toll from the disease is now approaching 2,000. The situation in Maharashtra seems to be worsening by the day. So far, the number of Covid-19 infections in the state has crossed 19,000.

The Maharashtra chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray, on Friday, said his government may seek additional manpower from the Centre, if needed, to allow the state’s police personnel to take rest in a phased manner. However, he dispelled the rumours of Army deployment in Mumbai.

In Gujarat too, the Covid-19 situation looks grim at this moment. The number of coronavirus cases jumped by 47.46 per cent in a week. The number of infections in the state on May 2 was 5,054, which is 7,403 now.

The number of global coronavirus cases is now just under 4 million and the worldwide death toll due to the viral infection is now almost 275,000. Friday saw the number of daily infections come down in a number of European countries.

Latest global coronavirus stats from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering

Latest coronavirus India stats: