Reza Mahmud :
After a bit hesitation, the people rushed to the markets in the last moment of the Eid-ul-Azha celebrated on Saturday.
Sources said, both shopping plazas and cattle markets got momentum finally on the eve of the second biggest religious festivals of the Muslims through out the world.
Besides, the people in notable number left the big cities like Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna and Rajshahi to join their families in the rural areas to celebrate the Eid.
Most of them chose the buses to go to their destinations, with high risk of corona transmission and more deaths..
“The contamination is increasing at a rate of 31 percent for not complying with the health huidelines,” said Professor Dr. M. Muzaherul Huq, former Advisor of World Health Organisation (WHO) told The New Nation on Tuesday.
He said, the government is not showing strictness to apply health guidelines.
“The government should be hard and unbending,” he said.
Dr. Mukhlesuzzaman Hero, former Deputy Director of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital said, “We have observed that most of the people rushed to the city’s cattle markets in the early hours of the Eid previous day, taking no safety measures like face mask, and hand gloves. Most of the people from juvenile to the old had little fear in their minds.
Dr. Mikhlewsuzzaman said, in the last moments, number of women and children rushed to different market places for Eid shopping, which also created risks of spreading infection.
People from different corners and public health experts said, the city dwellers were refraining from visiting markets from the very begging of the virus transmission on March 8. Besides, the government imposed a 66 day long shutdown from March 25 ending May 31.
Experts said, most of the people passed their Eid-ul-Fitr without shopping due to unbending application of health guidelines.
But most of them rushed to the hopping plaza during the Eid-ul-Azha Many of the people also left cities and enjoyed this Eid festival in their village homes with huge gathering.
Their Eid celebration and commuting with public transports are not followed by health safety rules properly as per reports. Public health experts warned that all those activities created a further risk of desperate corona attack.
“Those people who came in contract with any detected or undetected Covid-19 patient from cattle markets or shopping plazas or public transports should stay in quarantines at homes, so that they contaminate not other people,” Dr. Mukhlesuz Zaman said.
He said, the people are mostly over-hasty in our country. So, it is the government who is the authority to impose restrictions on their movement.
The public health experts urged especial measures such as to stay at home without any emergency compulsory.
They also suggested wearing face masks, face shields, hand gloves and must social distancing system mandatory for at least 15 days.
The law enforcing agencies should work with the conscious people hand to hand to force the unconscious people to respect the health guidelines.
