Saptsagar market shut for 3 days as trader tests +ve

Rajeev Dikshit | TNN | Updated: Apr 26, 2020, 12:51 IST

Officials were keeping sharp vigil on Madanpura, Bajardiha, Lohta and Nakkhighat as they are Muslim dominated in view of the commencement of holy month of Ramzan and to ensure lockdown norms are not violated

Officials were keeping sharp vigil on Madanpura, Bajardiha, Lohta and Nakkhighat as they are Muslim dominated ...Read More

VARANASI: The biggest medicine wholesale market of east UP — Saptsagar Market — was closed on Saturday after a medicine trader tested positive for novel coronavirus, while all eyes were on Banaras Hindu University laboratory to know results of the 102 samples sent from Madanpura hotspot and its containment zone of Revari Talab.
The district administration and health department officials were in high alert mode on Saturday after seven persons from Madanpura and Marahauli areas tested positive on Friday, the maximum in a single day in the district since the beginning of Covid-19 outbreak.
District magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said, “A medicine trader of Saptsagar Market tested positive on Friday. Orders have been issued for closure of the market for three days. The entire market will be sanitised.”
The market which caters to all districts of east UP, parts of Bihar and neighbouring states, remained closed on Saturday.
“The office bearers of the traders’ association of the market have been asked to provide a roster for allowing certain number of shops to open on rotation basis,” Sharma said
He said regulating crowd in the market is difficult since it is located in congested streets and crowding could prove hazardous. “Traders have been told to ensure that all persons who came in contact with the infected trader report to hospital voluntarily for screening and test,” he added. The Marahauli area, where the trader lives, was also declared hotspot on Friday. Apart from DM and SSP, divisional commissioner Deepak Agrawal, IG Varanasi range V S Mina and teams of health department camped in Marahauli on Saturday.
The officials appealed to people to be extra alert and take all precautions. Varanasi Municipal Corporation and health department teams carried out sanitisation drive in the area.
Officials were keeping sharp vigil on Madanpura, Bajardiha, Lohta and Nakkhighat as they are Muslim dominated in view of the commencement of holy month of Ramzan and to ensure lockdown norms are not violated.
Meanwhile, three samples from Madanpura and 99 from neighbouring Revari Talab were sent for test after contract tracing of other infected, and the reports are awaited.