India and Pakistan have started to ease the restrictions on social and economic activities in relation to coronavirus. For India, the decision followed a month of lockdown.
On Saturday, India permitted shops in residential areas to reopen. Retailers could restart a business with staff numbers reduced by half and as long as employees wear masks and gloves and appropriate social distancing is maintained.
Shops in large market places or multi-brand and single-brand malls will be allowed to reopen starting May 3 while the sale of liquor and other non-essential items continues to be banned.
However, market players in the sector are concerned over the bottlenecks as raw materials are lacking and the police restrict the movements of workers.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the nationwide lockdown to curb the outspread of the virus has been expanded to May 9. The country is now imposing a system that enables other parts of the economy to restart while at the same time adhering to the virus containment measures prompted by the government.
Pakistan now targets tracking and tracing of cases while allowing some industrial and commercial activities to resume under safety guidelines.
In Bangladesh, the nationwide lockdown is prolonged to May 5 while Sri Lanka extended the temporary suspension of SriLankan Airlines to May 15. Sri Lanka also would not proceed the requests from its migrant workers to return to the country.
