All social distancing norms flew out the window on Wednesday as scores of people poured out of their houses to visit the makeshift vegetable market located in the municipal stadium in Bhayandar (West). Similar violations were reported from other market-places in the twin-city.
Following social distancing norms is the only option to break the chain of infection. However, despite a complete ban on vehicular movement, people were seen moving around in bikes, cars and auto-rickshaws to make their purchases on Wednesday.
On-duty security guards and private bouncers chose to remain mute spectators even in the face of the blatant violations, thus weakening the lockdown and giving rise to fears of further spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The incident has not only exposed the apathy and negligence of officials in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), but has also brought to light the huge chinks in the security apparatus of the civic body which doles out astronomical amounts in the form of monthly pay-outs to a private manpower agency that has been hired for the job.
Apart from other restrictions, the civic administration had earlier ordered a four day closure of all vegetable and fruit markets/ shops in the twin-city. This ended on Wednesday.
The twin-city has witnessed a total 49 positive cases of the novel coronavirus so far. Two people have lost their lives to the deadly infectious disease while two others have recovered. In a welcome respite for the citizens as well as the MBMC, no new positive Covid-19 cases were reported from the twin-city on Wednesday.
Notably, the twin-city had reported zero coronavirus positive cases until March 29, but in a fortnight the number of patients gradually increased, eventually reaching 49. 126 swab test reports were still awaited as 63 people have been admitted to isolation wards as of Wednesday.
