Four more traders from Azadpur Mandi, Asia’s largest vegetables and fruits market, have tested positive for COVID-19, according to government authorities concerned.
The total number of traders associated with the mandi to be infected by the virus now stands at 15 even as officials from the Azadpur Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) claimed that the “actual” figure in this regard is an estimated 27 which is yet to be “officially accepted”.
According to officials, of the four fresh cases, one is a trader who tested positive on Tuesday and three tested positive on April 29.
All the 15 cases reported from the mandi , according to official records, have surfaced between April 20 and 29 with traders demanding that the market has clearly turned into a hotspot and must be shut to prevent the infection from spreading, but to no avail.
“The district administration has confirmed the reports of 15 people associated with the market and the District Surveillance Team is in touch with them. As many as 13 shops have so far been sealed and 43 people have been placed under quarantine. The mandi administration has made arrangements and is providing food and essentials to such individuals,” said APMC chairman Adil Ahmed Khan.
APMC member Anil Malhotra claimed the family members of many traders who had contracted the virus were in private hospitals. “Not only the family members of these traders, but the employees engaged at their shops as well as their families should be tested to ascertain the extent of the infection. The mandi should be declared a hotspot, shut down and shifted to an open space,” he said.
“The mandi is being sanitised regularly. Traders, shopkeepers, labourers and farmers entering it are being given masks. We clean the vicinity twice a day,” Mr. Khan said.
