Night curfews announced by Delhi and Maharashtra governments have come as a huge blow to the retailers, traders besides the hospitality industry including restaurants and pubs.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in a statement said that if every state takes steps at its own level, economic activities in the country will be severely affected. This will once again lead to huge loss to business.

The association said that the night curfew plan will directly affect restaurants, hotels, banquets, and farmhouse businesses operating in Delhi, which are already fighting for their survival due to the previous lockdown. “In the last one year all these sectors had to suffer a huge loss of business and now when they were slowly recovering .. the night curfew is being forced on them which will ruin them further,” it said. 

Earlier, a State Bank of India study said that localised lockdowns or restrictions have not resulted in controlling the spread of infection. This is visible in case of many states including Maharashtra and Punjab, it said.

“Thus increasing the speed of vaccination is the only way to win the battle against Covid-19 pandemic,” the report said. On Sunday, India recorded over 1 lakh fresh cases – the highest single day spike since the outbreak of the pandemic.