Visakhapatnam: It's a disappointing Sunday for hard core non-vegetarians

Visakhapatnam: Unlike the other weekends, meat shops wore a desolate look this Sunday across Visakhapatnam.

After a long wait, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) finally imposed restrictions on meat centres.

The officials concerned decided to ban the sale of meat, including chicken, mutton, shrimp and fish, on Sunday. As a result, all the meat shops and fish markets in Visakhapatnam remained closed.

Normally, serpentine queues were witnessed at chicken, fish and mutton centres, especially on Sundays and during holidays. Given the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, GVMC Commissioner G Srijana issued an order to close down the meat shops on Sunday. Authorities concerned have registered cases against the violators for selling meat despite the ban in place.

Maintaining social distance is impossible in these centres. The shop owners are also not providing any facility to maintain physical distance. There is a larger scope for these centres to become super spreaders of the virus because traders hardly follow any safety protocol and buyers too continue to ignore it.Highlighting the issue, The Hans India published many articles to bring the issue to the attention of the district authorities. During weekdays, the police are ensuring to close the meat shops and other outlets by 11 a.m. and urge people to reach home by 12 noon through their campaign.

With only five hours left to buy essentials during the relaxed period of the partial lockdown, buyers are flocking the fishing harbour, local fish markets and the mutton shops to bring the stock home.

Despite the partial lockdown imposed for 18 hours, the number of coronavirus cases in Visakhapatnam has not seen an apparent decline.

As the focus is now on crowded points, the district administration is monitoring the places where there is a higher possibility for the spread of the virus.

However, there is no clarity on how long the ban on meat shops will last. Another place where people often throng is local shandy which continues to operate uninterrupted.