Coronavirus (Covid-19): Amazon, Flipkart Temporarily Suspend Services In India

The biggest e-commerce giants in India- Amazon.in and Flipkart have announced a temporary suspension of their services. The announcement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a 21-day nation-wide lockdown due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. The online retailers have suspended services due to logistical issues and also to ensure safety of their employees and delivery staff.

Flipkart's website mentions, "We are temporarily suspending our services. These are difficult times, times like no other. Never before, have communities stayed apart to stay safe. Never before, has being at home meant helping the nation. We urge you to stay home to stay safe. We will get there. And we will get through. Together."

On the contrary, Amazon.in is still functional but has decided to offer deliveries of essential products. The Amazon.in homepage mentions, "To serve customers' most important needs while also ensuring safety of our associates, we are prioritizing all our resources to serve products that are currently high priority for customers." Amazon.in has temporarily stopped taking orders and has also disabled shipments for lower-priority products.

The Amazon list of high priority products includes- household staples, health care, and hygiene products prioritized to address COVID-19 operational requirements. Importantly, customers waiting for the deliveries of products categorized under lower-priority will be given a choice to cancel their orders to receive a refund for prepaid items. Grofers and BigBasket has also been forced to shut down operations across the country.

Notably, the total number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in India has crossed the 580-mark. India has reported 11 Covid-19 deaths till date with the most recent death reported in Tamil Nadu. Some new Coronavirus cases have been reported from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

We advise you to stay indoors and not step out from homes during the lockdown period. It is also important to not order food from online services like Zomato and Swiggy for health concerns.

For Coronavirus updates, you can follow the WHO Health Alert service. The WHO Health Alert service provides official information on important topics.

The list includes:

• How to protect yourself from infection

• Travel advise during the outbreak

• Debunking Coronavirus myths.

• Latest numbers

• Frequently asked questions, etc.