Team Herald
MARGAO: The Margao town and surrounding especially the market areas are increasingly becoming the hotbeds of the COVID-19 infection spread prompting the District Collector to order the MMC to control the operations of the Gandhi and New Markets.
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The Collector in his order stated, “It is directed that henceforth if any shop owner/worker has to go for COVID-19 test, he/she should keep the shop closed till the report is received Further, it is informed that if the person is found positive, the shop should be kept closed for 14 days. This must be implemented in the entire jurisdiction of Margao municipality”.
The MMC Chief Officer is directed to monitor the compliance of this order.
The cases under the demarcated areas of Margao UHC today have 390 active cases of COVID-19 infected persons. The South Collector drew an order to the MMC Chief Officer Ajit Panchwadkar in which he mentioned that the Salcete taluka till date 1240 COVID-19 cases have been reported out of which 90 cases are linked to New Market and Gandhi Market, Margao.
The Collector’s order stated that it has been reported that there are 16 shops whose owners and workers, who have been identified as positive with COVID 19. On July 18, the first case was reported.
However, this order has posed lots of questions in the minds of the owners and the execution of this order is difficult.
In times of the festival season and in anticipation of crowd there was a need for SOP. The MMC is surely going to be in a tight spot in the first place finding the ones who have tested positive. Since the date of the first case in the market is not known and the MMC being out of the loop on testing of the market shop owners and workers, the civic body has no clue which shops to seal, who is the owner or who is the worker.
