The state health department in India has banned the sale of loose cigarettes and bidis to help stop the spread of Covid-19 and to discourage smoking, reports Mumbai Mirror.
Vendors will have to sell full packs rather than single sticks. The police department and local self-government bodies are tasked with enforcing the ban.
Tobacco laws state that 85 percent of tobacco packaging must be health warnings, but when consumers are buying single sticks, they are not seeing these warnings. Officials are hoping requiring the sale of whole packs will discourage smokers; many tobacco consumers in India cannot afford whole packs.