Circles, squares drawn outside shops to keep social distance

To implement social distancing,

circles and squares were drawn one metre apart in front of grocery shops and vegetable stalls in Pune on Wednesday.

Customers are supposed to stand in these circles or squares while queuing up to buy things.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nation-wide lockdown on Tuesday evening, panic-buying was witnessed at grocery shops in many areas of Pune and neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad.

To avoid this, circles and squares have been drawn outside shops, said Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Shisave.

The distance between each circle/ square is one metre.

"Customers are expected to move to the next circle only after the person in front advances," he said.

 

Police in Pimpri Chinchwad and elsewhere in the Pune district used the same method for implementation of social distancing outside shops.

Shisave also said that compared to Tuesday, there were fewer cases of violation of curfew on Wednesday.

He held a meeting with members of pharmacists' association who assured him that they would work out a home delivery system so that people need not visit medical shops, the police officer said.