oimbatore: "I've been hearing news of another lockdown to be announced anytime soon. Hence, I've come to shop groceries for the upcoming month, ahead", told a resident of Saibaba Colony who was among a dozen that was forming a long queue with mega-sized bags at a wholesale grains and pulses shop at Big Bazaar Street in Coimbatore on Monday.
Coimbatore: "I've been hearing news of another lockdown to be announced anytime soon. Hence, I've come to shop groceries for the upcoming month, ahead", told a resident of Saibaba Colony who was among a dozen that was forming a long queue with mega-sized bags at a wholesale grains and pulses shop at Big Bazaar Street in Coimbatore on Monday.
The Big Bazaar Street which is a hotspot for hundreds of wholesale shops possibly could transform into a hotspot for COVID-19, if people swarm in these numbers, lamented a wholesale trader who added that it is mayhem since morning here as people speculate of another lockdown with stringent rules.
On Monday, hundreds of people thronged the market to buy groceries and vegetables and at many shops social distancing and mandatory masks were thrown to the wind. This pandemonium will pave the way for an outbreak, fear the traders and public.
With the MGR Market sealed after a few persons there tested COVID positive, people throng the vegetable market in the area. Many opine that the prices have shot up considerably due to this.
Vehicles were queued up in large numbers and had to move at snail pace. Impatient motorists were seen honking to find a way out of the market while tempos and autos were trying to get into the market to deliver consignments.
Though the medical experts have given a clear-cut statement that they have not recommended another lockdown to curb the spread of the virus but proposed ways including increasing tests and controlling inter-state travel, people are carried away by baseless WhatsApp forwards.
Another busy retail trader who was picking up goods for his shop at Sundarapuram told that due to the rising cases in Coimbatore, a lockdown announcement is imminent like in Madurai.
Clueless on how to control the flow of people, many traders opine that the corporation or the district administration should deploy monitoring teams at such hotspots to regulate traffic and reduce people movement.