Food delivery services resume in Hyderabad with limited staff

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], May 23 : Amid the COVID-19 lockdown, food delivery services by Zomato and Swiggy resumed in Hyderabad on Sunday with 30 per cent of their total delivery executive staff, after the Director-General of Police (DGP) instructed the Commissioners of Police to address grievances and ensure smooth delivery of essentials.
After the lockdown was announced earlier this month, several delivery executives were stopped by the police at various check posts in the city. Police also imposed hefty fines on them.
An official spokesperson of Zomato, while speaking to ANI over the phone, said that they had been given permission to operate after communication with Telangana DGP Mahender Reddy.
"After having a word with the DGP on Saturday, we have been given permission from the state government to continue with our services even with the lockdown in place. Delivery services have been resumed from today with only 30 per cent of all delivery executives on field as per DGP's instructions," the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson of Swiggy, another popular food delivery app, said that they would be operational with limited options for food and other essential deliveries on the basis of directives by the DGP.
The Telangana government had announced a state-wide lockdown from May 12 in view of the surge in coronavirus cases. On May 18, the lockdown was extended till May 30. The state government has permitted all activities between 6 am to 10 am every day.
As many as 18,767 new COVID-19 cases and 20,109 recoveries were reported in Andhra Pradesh in the last 24 hours, the state health department informed on Sunday.
The total number of cases in the state has mounted to 15,80,827.
With 104 deaths in the last 24 hours, the death toll has reached 10,126.