Chaos outside liquor stores as India eases virus lockdown COVID19
Police swung batons on Monday to beat back thirsty Indians jostling to buy alcohol for the first time in 40 days as the government eased further the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown.
The government credits its strict shutdown of almost all activity since in late March with keeping the official tally of COVID-19 cases to a relatively modest 42,500, with around 1,400 deaths -- this in a country with a population of 1.3 billion people. Officials had painstakingly drawn chalk circles for booze customers to stand in, but the social distancing efforts were thwarted as people gathered from early morning."Alcohol will energise us to maintain social distancing during the pandemic," he said.
"One of the shops had opened in the morning but clashes broke out as a lot of crowd had gathered," a police officer in Ghaziabad told AFP. One lucky customer, a 25-year-old man named Sagar, said he went to a liquor store in Delhi at 7:30 am and was delighted to discover it had opened early.
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