Indians queue outside store in Chennai
© PTIA queue outside a TASMAC store in Chennai, on March 21, 2020.
The central government has banned the sale of substances like liquor and tobacco during the extended lockdown in place to ensure social distancing, a key tool in the fight against the coronavirus.

In a list of directives released Wednesday, enforceable under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the government banned the sale of liquor, tobacco and gutka. It also said people who spit in public would be fined. (For a summary of the national directives, click here.)

The novel coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, causes a potentially fatal respiratory illness -- Covid-19 -- and spreads primarily through respiratory droplets produced when a person talks, coughs or sneezes.


Evidence that the virus could be spread by people without symptoms -- or people don't have symptoms yet -- is part of the rationale behind the use of homemade face covers, which the government has now made mandatory. It has published a detailed manual on making such covers at home.

On Tuesday, India extended a three-week lockdown that began on March 25 by 19 days -- till May 3.

India has reported more than 10,000 coronavirus cases, and 377 deaths.