New Delhi: The Delhi government has imposed a week-long lockdown in the national capital. While restaurants are closed for dine-in, food delivery is allowed throughout the day. Similar exemptions have been given in other states too where weekend curfews and night curfews have been imposed.
Food delivery and restaurant aggregator Zomato has come up with a new feature for app users, both iPhone and Android. Users can now mark their food orders as a COVID-19 emergency. These food orders will be prioritised and will be assigned to the ‘fastest rider’ based on location and route to ensure the quickest delivery.
Zomato’s founder Deepinder Goyal took to Twitter on Wednesday night to announce the roll-out of the feature in association with thousands of its restaurant partners.
“Today, along with thousands of our restaurant partners, we just rolled out a priority delivery for covid emergencies feature on the Zomato app. This feature will allow our customers to mark — This order is related to a COVID-19 emergency — option during checkout,” Goyal said.
Today, along with thousands of our restaurant partners, we just rolled out a “priority delivery for covid emergencies'' feature on the Zomato app. This feature will allow our customers to mark *This order is related to a COVID-19 emergency* option during checkout. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/BxmBF02PnS
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) April 21, 2021
The COVID-19 emergency food orders will get dedicated customer support and also they will be contactless, which means they will be prepaid and the deliveries will be contactless.
The new update is available on Zomato for orders from restaurants that have signed up for this COVID-19 emergency delivery facility. The user will see the option – This order is related to a COVID-19 emergency – and all we have to do is check on that option.
The charges for such deliveries will be usual and no extra charges will be added to the bill. Moreover, the delivery of such an order will be contactless by default to ensure the safety of the customer as well as the delivery agent.
Rolling out the new feature, Zomato also urged users to mark the food order as 'COVID Emergency' only if this is a genuine emergency and the order needs to be prepared on priority. “Treat this as an ambulance and please don't misuse it,” reads the feature description on the app.
The feature will be a great help to those suffering from COVID-19 or someone who is taking care of a patient and needs to get the food delivered quickly.
