Shopping malls to reopen in Gurugram from next week

Gurgaon: Shopping malls in Haryana's Gurugram will reopen from next week, three months after they were closed as part of the nationwide lockdown to battle coronavirus, officials have said. The malls will have to adhere to strict standard operating procedures or SOPs to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Religious places in Gurgaon will stay closed though.

Strict guidelines may also be announced for the containment zones in the city which is just south of Delhi.

Gurgaon municipal commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh said the SOP has not been announced yet and will be released after the state's home department finalises it.

Shopping malls have been losing money since no economic activity has taken place due to the lockdown. Owners of stores at malls say they worry about rent and other fixed cost that keep accumulating, and with hardly any sales they would find it extremely difficult to service their debts.

Haryana had shut the border with Delhi after the coronavirus lockdown was extended after positive cases in the national capital spiked.

India registered its biggest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases today, recording 17,296 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, to push the overall tally to 4,90,401 lakh as the number of fatalities touched 15,301, government data this morning shows.

407 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. However, the recovery rate has improved to 58.24 per cent, according to the Health Ministry figures, with 2,85,637 patients recovering. In the last five days, India has contributed the third-highest new cases daily in the world. The country maintains the fourth position on the mortality rate.