As tourists thronging hill stations like Manali and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh and shoppers overcrowding the markets in cities like Delhi and Mumbai are throwing all cautions and precautions to wind in violating laid down Covid norms, a miffed and “frightened” Government on Tuesday warned of reimposing a lockdown if the protocols are not followed even as it pointed out that the second wave was not yet over.
Expressing its unhappiness at travellers for not following Covid appropriate behavior, the government said, “People travelling to hill stations are not following Covid-appropriate behaviour. We can nullify the ease in restrictions again if protocols are not complied with.”
Pictures of heavily crowded streets and markets are doing the rounds on social media and other media platforms. Tourists blatantly ignoring social distancing norms have been seen in Shimla, Kufri, Narkanda, Dalhousie, Lahaul and even Mussorie.
Stressing that the pandemic was not yet over, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, described the images as “frightening”.
Dr. Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR, said that people must comply with Covid-appropriate behaviour. “The future challenge is not the 3rd wave, but how we act on it. Instead of highlighting the wave aspect, we should focus on COVID appropriate behaviour/restrictions to contain the spread,” he added
He said violations of Covid protocols will lead to further increase in the infections as he stressed on wearing masks and maintaining physical distance. The Ministry has also written to Himachal Pradesh to ensure that the CAB norms are followed at every level.
After the Himachal Pradesh government announced the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in mid-June, tourists started to head to higher altitudes, especially to Shimla, Kullu-Manali, and Dharamsala. Within a few hours of the opening of the borders, long serpentine queues of vehicles were witnessed at the entry points after cops stopped vehicles to examine the e-pass of travellers arriving from other states.
In Delhi, the Kejriwal Government too had to shut down three markets—Lajpat Nagar market, Lakshmi Nagar market and Sui market in Sadar market for a few days after people were seen violating the Covid norms.