Buying a sacrificial animal at the Super Highway cattle market was an uphill task for Arooba Ali as she made her way to the market along with her three children, who seeing animals in such large numbers couldn’t contain their excitement and ran wild often letting their masks slip off their faces.

“Look at the arrangements. Who can be comfortable here?” she asks pointing to the crowd in the market with many people flouting the SOPs for Covid-19. “The administration is only concerned apparently with charging you a fee,” she says while showing a car parking receipt for Rs 50.

“I can’t waste more time in answering kitnay ka khareeda (how much did you buy the animal for?) queries from so many passersby,” she says. “It seems the people were getting bored at home on account of the lockdown and just want to head to the market.”

The Super Highway market is the largest of six markets organised by the city’s administration. It is spread over an area of 960 acres – the size of two Jallo Parks – and maintained by a cantonment board. In the run up to Eid it will attract millions of visitors.

Many families are bringing children to Karachi’s cattle markets as they look for deals to buy sacrificial animals. Several families these scribes talked to were not taking the threat of coronavirus seriously. “It is not only at the cattle markets that people can be infected by the virus. The entire city is open for commercial activities and in underdeveloped areas children play in the streets. They are more likely to get infected there,” said Abdul Hafiz Khan, who was looking for sacrificial animals with his two sons.

Yawar Chawla, a spokesperson for the Super Highway animal market, says that while SOPs are in place, these get ignored sometimes especially in large crowds. “We try our best to keep people safe by asking them to wear masks, wash hands and maintain distance but if they don’t follow we can’t punish them. We can only ask them to leave.”

He says that the market is like a mini city where 50,000 people live within enclosed walls for two months. He says the market has 3,500 stalls and it is expected to generate a business of at least Rs 12 billion.

“We have our coronavirus vigilance team working in the market. Some people already follow precautions. Others do so because of the fear of vigilance, and some others simply don’t believe in these.”

On one hand, the teams tasked by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) for guiding visitors and implementing SOPs were instructing people to wear masks, maintain physical distance and avoid crowding. On the other, many people were hardly even wearing facemasks. In front of every stall, women and children made up small crowds. Drivers meant to drop off sacrificial animals at buyers’ homes were openly violating the SOPs.

Dr Rafiq Khanani, who heads the Infection Control Society of Pakistan, says that the coronavirus situation could worsen after Eid-ul-Azha. Speaking to The News on Sunday, he says that if the behaviour at animal markets is not controlled, the country might see a daily average of over 5,000 new infections and over 100 deaths.

Apart from the six official animal markets in Karachi, tens of local cattle markets have been set up in various neighbourhoods of the city. There are no checks and nobody seems to be following the rules. “The illegal markets pose a serious threat to lives. Not only can visitors get infected with coronavirus, they can also pick up several other viral diseases, especially the tick-borne viral disease like Congo aka the CCHF,” says Dr Mohan Lal, a senior veterinary physician.

He notes, however, that this year the police are regularly raiding such markets to demand enforcement of the SOPs. This is why the animal vendors don’t want crowds at their stalls. “Despite the measures taken by the provincial and local authorities, some people are not ready to follow the guidelines issued by the government to prevent a further spread of the virus,” he says.

Dr Shahid Ahmed, a senior physician and gastroenterologist at the Darul Sehat Hopital, says that cattle and livestock carry several communicable diseases including Congo fever and anthrax. The cattle also host several parasites which can transmit disease when they come in contact with humans, especially at animal markets where human-to-animal contact is easily established.

What of the livestock department?

Dr Ahtesham ul Haq Rana, director of Sindh Livestock Animal Husbandry wing, says veterinary doctors of the Livestock Department have no role in implementing the SOPs. “However, the Sindh government has formed several mobile teams inclusive of veterinary doctors who treat sacrificial animals”. He says that Livestock Department teams are just checking animals brought for sale from other provinces. “The KMC authorities don’t have enough veterinary doctors. Therefore, KMC is providing transportation to Livestock Department teams. We only check the health of the sacrificial animals.”

Making a mockery of safety

People continue to ignore social distancing and safety guidelines in animal markets. The shopping malls, wholesale and cloth markets are allowed to remain open from 7am to 9pm. But there are no inspections to ensure compliance with market timings, avoidance of crowds and maintenance of social distancing protocols. People are seen moving in large groups and they are rarely seen using facemasks and market administrators are not insisting on enforcement of SOPs.

Public transport in the city is following a similar pattern. The SOPs and safety measures are being largely ignored. Drivers and conductors are of the view that the government is “just dividing the people over coronavirus.” Many of them crack jokes about it. “Where is corona? What is corona? This is just a drama by the government to get some money from donor countries,” says Khan Hassan, a mini bus driver. Bus passengers, too, fail to follow the SOPs and maintain physical distancing protocols. At every stop, conductors call out to passengers in a bid to fill their coaches to the capacity. Some of the buses are even overloaded.

The writers are reporters for The News in Karachi.