CHENNAI: After a gap of nearly five months, the city’s spirit was revived on Tuesday with Tasmac reopening its liquor stores. Though the crowds were moderate, many were found not to be following the social distancing norms despite barricades being placed. The shops in north Chennai’s Old Washermenpet, Tondiarpet areas had moderate crowds up to 1 pm while those in South and Central Chennai areas witnessed crowds only till 10 am.
The customers stood in queues inside the barricades placed while in some outlets, cops were placed to keep a watch at the crowd.The TASMAC staff across various outlets in the city said they had sold only upto 100 to 150 tokens till 1 pm. In stray incidents, few women protesters in Ekkatuthangal and Anna Nagar areas staged protests against opening of the TASMAC shops during the Covid-19 pandemic. Police officials had to jump in the spot to pacify the protestors.
The reopening of the TASMAC outlets comes in the wake of the city recording a spike of more than 1000 Covid-19 cases. This has caused a concern among people from various spheres that the move would compromise the Covid-19 containment work. However, Public health experts say that opening TASMACs is not a problem by itself but how well the Covid-19 prevention norms are enforced there is what matters.
‘Need strict enforcement of Covid protocols’ Infectious diseases specialist Dr Ram Gopalakrishnan at Apollo Hospital says that it depends on effective regulation of crowds. “If crowd regulation is poor, opening up TASMACs would amplify the intensity of Covid in the city. We have examples of how cases came up from Koyambedu and large crowds are seen in Kasimedu fish market too,’’ he said.
Experts also worry that opening TASMACs may pose a risk to public order -- since the bars are closed, many may consume alcohol either in the outlet premises or on the road. “There is a risk of public order not being maintained and the government needs to effectively handle it,’’ added Dr Gopalakrishnan. Infectious diseases specialist Dr Subramanian Swaminathan of Gleneagles Global Hospital says that opening TASMAC is a ‘high-risk’ activity.
“Any place with a larger public football is a risk and liquor outlets are no different. Can they ensure that they would be able to mitigate risk of infection spreading?’’ questions Dr Swaminathan. There must be a strong system for risk mitigation and Covid protocols must be enforced, he adds.