Crowded Khan Market has little space for social distancing

Fearing that cases will increase in the coming days, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting with health department officers on Friday afternoon, to take stock of bed availability and other hospital management measures.

On Friday, when the national capital saw over 3,500 fresh cases of Covid-19 and 14 deaths from the disease, the much-favoured Khan Market – popular for its bookstores, cafés, and luxury dining places – remained crowded till late, with people paying scant regard to social distancing protocols.

Visitors, some not wearing face masks amid the coronavirus pandemic, at Khan Market, in New Delhi,

Saroj Khanna, 42, a resident of south Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park, said she had not expected the market to be as crowded as it was. “My friends and acquaintances told me that proper sanitisation protocols were being followed in restaurants and the market wasn’t as crowded as other areas of the city. So I thought of visiting here to run some errands and found it crowded,” she said.

Fearing that cases will increase in the coming days, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting with health department officers on Friday afternoon, to take stock of bed availability and other hospital management measures. Kejriwal urged citizens to continue wearing masks and not let their guard down.

In Khan Market, however, plenty of people were spotted not following Covid-appropriate behaviour. While sanitisers were placed outside eateries and restaurants, and service staff were stationed outside to carry out thermal checks, people were not following physical distancing while strolling through the market and many of them did not have their masks on the proper way.

Prisha Seth, a class 10 student from Defence Colony, who met her friends after more than a year, said, “Our parents had to be convinced to allow us to come here. We were wearing our masks throughout and took it off only to get some group photographs.”

Market association members too have geared up to enforce stricter measures to combat the new Covid wave. “We have been sharing all guidelines with shop owners and have told them not to allow more than five people in their outlets at a time. Shops follow sanitisation protocols and do not allow people without masks to enter. We are also arranging for more Covid stickers to put up in shops and ensure people stand at a distance from one another,” said Sanjiv Mehra, president of Khan Market Traders’ Association.

On Friday, however, many shops were spotted flouting guidelines and allowing multiple people to enter. While eateries, restaurants, and a few high-end shops conducted temperature checks, other shopkeepers were not regulating the crowd or conducting temperature checks.

A police officer on duty at the market, who asked not to be named, said, “We conduct regular checks and most of the people here wear masks properly. We ask people to maintain distance if we spot any overcrowding anywhere. There are fewer violations here than at other places. We also click photographs of people before issuing them fines if they are spotted without masks.”

Sachin Narula, 41, who runs the Narula stationery which has been operational since 1958, said, “While markets are constantly being scrutinised, why are religious gatherings going unnoticed? Authorities and police conduct regular checks at Khan Market and issue fines to protocol violators. We all have to ensure that these rules are implemented stringently because we cannot have another lockdown.”

Dr Rajesh Chawla, senior consultant of pulmonology at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said, “The number of cases is on the rise and it will continue to increase this month. This is mainly due to the pandemic fatigue; people are not wearing masks in public, social distancing is not being maintained, and many who have stayed at home until now have started coming out, once the cases went down. All these added to the current spurt in cases.”

On Friday, Delhi Police across the city issued 1,203 fines for not wearing masks. Police said they have stepped up checks and enforcement across the city.