Beware of surge in #COVID19 cases during festival time like #Diwali2021 - an eye opening article by @jaisank70905230 in the Trichy the Hindu @the_hindu on 21.10.2021 - M.A.Aleem Neurologist #Trichy #Tamilnadu #India Traders do not enforce safety measures https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/traders-do-not-enforce-safety-measures/article37101870.ece

In the Trichy The Hindu on 21.10.2021

Traders do not enforce safety measures

C. Jaisankar

TIRUCHI, OCTOBER 21, 2021 00:00 IST

UPDATED: OCTOBER 21, 2021 04:24 IST

Shoppers too are complacent

Lackadaisical approach of traders in the city on enforcing COVID-19 safety protocol has raised concern among the people.

With the Deepavali festival round the corner, shoppers have been making a beeline to the major business streets such as NSB Road, Singarathope, Big Bazaar Street, Nandi Koil Street and Chinnakadai Street. The commercial centre attracts customers from Ariyalur, Perambalur and Pudukkottai too.

Though the impact of the second wave of COVID-19 on textile business is yet to be analysed, traders have filled up the racks with a hope by procuring dress materials from Mumbai, Surat, Ahmadabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and others. As expected the textile showrooms are teeming up with customers.

What is causing concern among the people is the lackadaisical approach on enforcing the COVID 19 safety measures prescribed by the government. Except one or two, most traders seem to have taken the COVID 19 safety protocol for granted.

Except applying hand sanitizer while allowing the customers inside their showrooms, traders do not enforce other safety measures such as wearing masks, limiting the number of customers, enforcing social distancing norms and screening the customers for temperature, it is alleged.

Business is as usual in most textile and garment showrooms and utensil stores. It seems that no one has restricted the customers. They allow as many people as possible. Shoppers too do not bother to wear masks.

Stating that the danger of COVID-19 is still omnipresent, doctors sound a warning. “We must not forget the sharp rise in fresh cases shortly after the Onam festival season in Kerala. We need to be extremely careful while shopping in congested places,” says M.A.Aleem, former Vice Principal, KAP. Viswanatham Government Medical College, Tiruchi.

While admitting the need for enforcing COVID-19 protocol, an employee of a textile showroom on NSB Road said that limiting customers was not practical. If limited, it would cause mayhem and confusion not only inside the showrooms but also on busy streets.

Customers, who abide by the safety measures, said that law enforcers should at least ensure all customers in showrooms wear masks. Otherwise, action should be taken against the customers and traders for failing to adhere to the safety norms.

Meanwhile, the Tiruchi Corporation’s Assistant Commissioner of K.Abishekapuram zone has announced that it is mandatory for all traders and the employees in their shops to have inoculated with both doses of COVID-19 vaccine. They should produce the certificates of vaccination to corporation workers during inspections, he said in a statement.