CHENNAI: It looked like city residents had taken a break from the lockdown on Saturday morning with residents filling up the streets to stock up for the complete lockdown, scheduled for four days from Sunday.
CMDA member secretary D Karthikeyan said on Saturday that during the complete lockdown from Sunday to Wednesday, vegetable shops may remain open although grocery shops are to remain closed. Grocery stores that also sell vegetables have to shut shop although they can continue to sell vegetables on the footpath. The Koyambedu wholesale market will function.
Meanwhile Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced on Saturday morning that grocery and vegetable shops will be allowed to function until 3 pm on Saturday.
The last minute announcements only added to the confusion, with people rushing to stock their pantries. Panic buying on Saturday morning resulted in several shops running out of essential supplies like bread, milk and water cans. Moreover, while many shops in the city continued to follow social distancing norms even in serpentine queues, many others gave it a miss in the chaos.
In Purasaiwalkam, vegetable vendors raised the prices of vegetables even as people thronged to them for fresh vegetables. Residents in T Nagar and Washermanpet said that the vegetable stocks in several supermarkets and even the market set up by the corporation in Old Washermanpet were old and the only source of fresh vegetables was from mobile carts on the streets.
At the Sir Theagaraya College market in Old Washermanpet, people were found standing in 200-metre queues even as the market began running out of stock by 11:30 am, leaving those waiting clueless about where to go next.
The situation was similar in Tondiarpet and Royapuram zones that already account for nearly 200 COVID-19 cases and are prone to community transmission.
Chicken and mutton stalls in Tiruvanmiyur exhausted their stock for the day and had to shut shop as early as 11:30 am. Fish stalls at Adambakkam were found selling at much higher prices owing to the surge in demand.
City residents said they had spent anywhere between 30 minutes to 2.5 hours waiting in queues to shop.
R Kalaivani, who works behind the billing counter at a Velachery supermarket, said that she and her colleagues were exhausted due to the non-stop flow of customers.
Shortage of milk
Aavin milk was found to be unavailable in shops in Trust Puram, Kodambakkam, Nanganallur and Madipakkam among other areas in the city. The shopkeeper at an Aavin outlet in Kodambakkam said that he has not received the stock for the day. Several were turned away.
The shopkeeper at the Aavin outlet in Nanganallur asked customers to return at 1 pm when the second load of stock is to arrive. Only ice cream and kulfi were available.