Bhubaneswar: Apart from the surge in the case and an increase in law enforcement activities, people do not seem indifferent to the danger of Covid still posing.
Travel to the main markets such as Indradhanu and Unit-I in the capital city show that most people have removed masks, either because of carelessness, fatigue, lack of awareness or illusion that the virus will not infect them as there is vaccinated.
Jagannath Tripathy, who is regular to the unit-I market, said at least 75% of vegetable vendors do not wear masks.
“I have to be careful with double when buying vegetables and keeping distance, but it’s very difficult.
I plan to buy vegetables from a shop near my house from now on as an opportunity to catch infection there less,” Tripathy said.
Similar is the situation in the Indradhanu market.
“The people who come to the drug store wear a mask for fear Mask, “said Bines Kumar Rout, a salesman at a drug store.
Apart from 13 teams 8 to 9 people, including staff of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and a police officer carrying law enforcement activities in the city.
Even mask sales have not witnessed a lot of improvements in the past week.
“Young people buy one or two surgical masks from our store to enter the mall nearby.
Otherwise we haven’t sold a lot of masks because Omicron starts to spread.
While the cost of N95 Rs 60 to Rs 70 per piece, the surgical mask comes much cheaper.
At Rs 5 at the retail counter, “he added hoping.
“From one or two masks per day before, I now sell 5 to 7 pieces every day,” said Patnik, added that the situation of the pandemic would only improve when people began to wear a mask.
Most shop owners also said that there was no increase in sales of sanitisers.