With few days ahead of Eid-ul-Adha, the second biggest religious festival of the Muslim community, the purchase of sacrificial animals has already begun in Ambari livestock market of Dinajpur. The pictures of the cattle markets that have started appearing in the media are raising concerns.
Cattle markets of the city are selling cattle but maximum are not maintaining any kind of health guidelines. The number of infections has increased since the last Eid-ul-Fitr. Infections are also expected to increase during and after the Eid-ul-Azha.
Thousands of people defied government warnings over the coronavirus to crowd at vast seasonal livestock market, without wearing face masks, a week before the Muslim Eid Al-Adha holiday. People are ignoring social distancing after the government relaxed lockdown that was enforced to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. The Ambari livestock market in Dinajpur is usually crowded with sellers and buyers before Eid, and the pandemic did not reduce their numbers, but few had much money to spend. Abed Ali, the lessee of Ambari market said, “As you can see, the livestock are lined up down there. There has been neither buying nor selling. Many people ignored social distancing guidelines and flocked to markets, helping fuel a subsequent surge in COVID-19 cases across Dinajpur”.
“The sale and purchase of livestock is 40 percent less than last year. In the past, people were very familiar with sacrificial animal market.
But the situation has changed this year due to the outbreak of the corona pandemic, traders said. And there is no business for two months in the cattle market. Peoples do not have lot of money; they have lost their earnings due to corona attack and are offering prices lower than our expectation”, he added.
Traders also complained that no actions were taken by local authorities to disperse crowds. Even Dinajpur Civil Surgeon are not taking any measures to limit transmission and are not warning people.