Coronavirus: Social distancing being practiced by Keralites outside Liquor Shops

The novel pandemic, Coronavirus(COVID-19) is affecting lives throughout the world at a really fast pace, already affecting more than 5,97,458 people today. In this critical time, one of the effective mechanisms to deal with the deadly coronavirus is to practice social distancing i.e. people around the globe are advised to stay at their homes and practice self-isolation.

In the middle of everyone practicing social distancing, a video from Kannur district in north Kerala showing Keralites maintain one-meter distance even while queuing up at a liquor shop is going viral. The gap maintained even while standing in a queue is a sign of discipline and is being applauded globally.  The guards at the liquor outlets were also seen maintaining a safe one-meter distance from the people. The video has approx. 1,90,000 views and a lot of reactions have bombarded the comments sections. The video has been shared over 17,000 shares, 1,500 comments.

The Telegraph quoted G. Sparjan Kumar, Managing Director of the Kerala State Beverages Corporation saying that on March 18, the government implemented a rule to maintain 1-meter distance when standing in queues and capped the maximum number of people queueing up to 30.

“Usually liquor outlets are crowded, but after the spread of COVID-19, we got directions from the state government to take necessary precautions at the shops. We have provided masks, gloves, and sanitizers to the staff, he said.

He said three additional guards had been posted at every Indian Made Foreign Liquor outlet now to prevent crowding.