Mangaluru : A team comprising of officials, multi-purpose workers and health officials will create awareness on coronavirus in each ward of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) by distributing pamphlets on precautionary measures to be taken to contain the spread of the disease, MCC Commissioner Ajith Kumar Hegde Shanady said on Wednesday.

The team will visit houses to create awareness. The public should not panic but should avoid large gatherings and maintain personal hygiene, he told reporters in the mayor’s chambers.

The time-bound sale offers in all the supermarkets selling grocery is prohibited. The supermarkets in malls are allowed to remain open from 10 am to 7 pm, he added.

“In case if we receive any complaints, then it will be closed down. There was a fear of creating artificial scarcity of products. Hence supermarkets have been allowed to be open. Alcohol-based sanitisers should be placed in the shopping areas for the customers to use. Cleanliness should be maintained and the owners should ensure that there is no stampede at the billing counter,” he stressed.

Further, he said that all parks and gyms will remain closed to the public. The entry of visitors to the beach had been prohibited as per the orders of the deputy commissioner.

The MCC commissioner urged hotels owners to supply hot water to customers. Staff should wear hand gloves and maintain cleanliness.

Door handles, floor, billing table should be cleaned using Sodium hypochlorite, bleaching powder or other disinfectants. Cleanliness should be maintained in the hotels. Further, the health and environment engineers have been visiting the lodges to get details on foreign returned/foreign guests staying in the lodges.

The commissioner warned of strict action against the owners of PG accommodations and hostels who failed to maintain cleanliness in their surroundings. More than two inmates should not be allowed to stay in a living room with a plinth area of 110 square- feet in the PG accommodations.

The resident welfare associations should maintain cleanliness and check the mass gathering in the apartment premises. All gyms, swimming pools, entertainment clubs, and other sports facilities in the apartments should be closed for use. Cleanliness should be maintained inside elevators. The resident welfare associations should ensure that all those quarantined should follow the guidelines of health officials. As a precautionary measure, the officials have cleared 90% of the roadside eateries in the city limits. The mayor released the publicity materials on the occasion. Later, stickers to create awareness on coronavirus were pasted on the buses in Mangaluru.

Dr Chirag conducted an awareness programme on coronavirus for the corporators and officials of MCC.