Mandya: Social distancing norms to check the spread of COVID-19 are going for a toss with people crowding and jostling against each other to buy essential commodities such as groceries and meat in city yesterday.

As per the protocol, essential services such as vegetable, grocery and meat shops are allowed to function between 6 to 10 am. Most of the shops in city remained open even after 10 am and the crowd were busy purchasing essential commodities. Despite clarification that essential services will be exempted, panic buying continued at all major market places.

Serpentine queues were witnessed in front of meat stalls in all extensions as it was Sunday. Though the number of positive cases and casualties are increasing by the day, Mandya residents moved around the city as if everything was normal. The metal barricades put on the main roads and important circles were of no use as they could not restrict unnecessary movement of people.

Large crowd was seen at all major roads of city including Mandya vegetable market, V.V.  Road, R.P. Road, Hosahalli Circle and Gutthal Road. These crowds, with barely any mask and no social distancing can prove to be super-spreaders. In fact, crowds, in their enthusiasm to purchase essentials, are tending to forget that the virus is lurking amidst them.