Mumbai will be 100 percent vaccinated and will open up completely by the end of November, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Chahal said on August 13. He also said that a call on the reopening of cinema halls will be taken in a fortnight.

The BMC Commissioner’s clarification came a day after concerns were raised about the rule mandating fully COVID vaccinated staff at restaurants and malls.

The Retailers Association of India (RAI) had urged the Maharashtra government on August 9 to allow the reopening of malls and multiplexes immediately, stating that any further delay would "spell doom for businesses and employees associated with malls".

Kumar Rajagopalan, the CEO of the Retailers Association of India said, “There are issues like theatres not opening up and there are small niggles here and niggles there but theatre is a big thing. We hope it gets opened up. The big worry was whether the customers can come and shop confidently, I think that is got opened up now.”

Talking about vaccination, Rajagopalan said that the BMC Commissioner’s clarification comes as a bit of relief and that it is essential to make sure people are vaccinated. It is also essential that life and livelihood have to go together well enough, he added.

He said that it is a nice method to ensure that people have taken at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, adding that many retailers have got it done and the rest will automatically happen. “Hopefully by November that you are talking about things will be very good for Mumbai,” he said.

“From the modern retail fraternity, everybody was kind of making it a point to ensure that everybody was vaccinated once at least. When the last lockdown happened itself we had taken it as a mission that when things open up, there will be a need for one vaccination. So most of the retailers have got vaccinated employees available with them,” he explained.

Meanwhile, he also said that he doesn’t expect a lot of sales during the festival period. “But having said that, last year, customers were just learning to celebrate the festival from within their houses. There is no big restriction on relatives coming home and visiting so I think it is slightly different than last year to that extent, and therefore we expect that things should be much better than last year overall.”

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video...

(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)