Tamil Nadu: Chennai’s Koyambedu Vegetable Market Poses Threat Of Emerging A Covid-19 Hotspot

Greater Chennai City Corporation and Chennai police will likely make vendors of vegetables, fruits and flowers at the primary wholesale Koyambedu market shift out to two suburban areas today (28 April), as part of efforts to tackle the spread of novel Coronavirus (Covid-19).

The Hindu reported that state agriculture secretary Gagandeep Singh, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority member secretary D Karthikeyan and Chennai Corporation commissioner G Prakash, besides Chennai city police commissioner A K Viswanathan have held meetings with the traders’ association to shift the market.

The market could be shifted to suburban Madhavaram and Kilambakkam, while a part of the shops at the market could be retained. The decision to shift the market is being considered to ensure proper social distancing.

The issue of splitting the market’s functioning comes on the heels of at least four persons — two lorry drivers, a flower vendor and a saloon owner — at the Koyambedu market testing positive for Coronavirus.

The principal wholesale market now poses the threat of emerging a Coronavirus vector, given the activity in the marker and how people had been reckless in not observing precautions to avoid getting infected with Coronavirus.

The Chennai City police commissioner has told the traders’ association that the market would have to be shut if one more person tests positive for Covid-19 with the wholesale market being the source.

Chennai has emerged Tamil Nadu government’s main worry in tackling Coronavirus. Of the 1,937 Covid-19 positive cases in Tamil Nadu, Chennai accounts for 575 or nearly 30 per cent.

The state has reported 24 deaths till now, while over 1,100 have recovered — one of the good developments for the state.

On Monday (27 April) alone, 47 of the 52 Covid-19 cases reported in Tamil Nadu were from Chennai.

While the decision to shift Chennai’s principal horticulture products market is welcome, health and infection diseases experts are of the view that the move was long overdue.

This is because despite a nation-wide lockdown being imposed since March, the Koyambedu wholesale market has never ceased to be active.

The problem with Koyambedu market functioning without proper social distancing norms is that people from across the city purchase fruits, vegetables and flowers from there.

While some people buy for their household from Koyambedu as prices are cheap, some retail traders procure the products from the principal market and sell them in their locality.

That people rub shoulders with each other inside the market has raised fears of the pandemic spreading across the city.

There are chances of these people carrying the infection either way. Incidentally, a trader who visited the Koyambedu market has tested positive for Coronavirus in a locality that is 2 km away.

The trader, his family and his neighbours, totalling 14, have now tested positive for Covid-19, sending shivers down the spine of the entire locality spanning from Anna Nagar Western Extension to Mogappair.

The authorities had been pleading with the traders to move out to open spaces but they had been resisting it.

All these days, they bought time saying they need to ‘think it over’.

It is not just the case with Koyambedu. Even small markets such as in Chintadripet fish market or even wayside mutton stalls have seen people crowding for purchases.

On 25 April, people in cities such as Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Salem and Madurai crowded neighbourhood shops ahead of the four-day total curfew announced from 26-29 April to tackle the pandemic virus.

This, experts fear, could have exposed the people to being infected with Coronavirus. Experts point out that this is where the authorities had been a little slack.

Has the decision to shift the Koyambedu market come a little too late? Experts say the next few days will provide an answer.