by Suresh Perera

The raging Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to trade and business across the board with industry players describing the lull as “unprecedented” this festive season.

The crux of the matter was that people dreaded to venture out in fear of the lurking virus, which translated into shopping for Christmas and the forthcoming New Year taking a back seat, they said.

If there was any shopping to do at all, mostly to give gifts to near and dear ones in this season of good cheer, only one member of a family would opt to do a hasty run to pick up what they considered could not be done without, they noted.

Gone were the days when whole families went on a shopping spree to buy gifts for their friends and relatives. With the health authorities cautioning the public to observe social distancing and avoid crowded places in keeping with Covid-19 preventive measures, many people preferred to give shopping a miss in the backdrop of the raging virus, particularly in the volatile Western province, industry officials said.

Clothing stores, supermarkets and shops selling gift items were among businesses badly hit by the pandemic, with families reluctant to celebrate with friends and relatives or make a beeline to their home towns over the Christmas and New Year holidays in fear of the virulent infection, which has killed 185 persons in Sri Lanka by Thursday, they explained.

The continuing lockdown in many densely populated areas of the Western province also contributed to the slide in business all around as thousands of people remained confined to their homes under a distressing scenario, the officials said.

Supermarket officials said customers visiting their outlets have dipped significantly as many people don’t want to risk the possibility of being caught at the “wrong place at the wrong time”.

A customer who visited a supermarket on Christmas eve said there were just a handful of people around with most of them purchasing food items, more so in fear of a sudden lockdown than to celebrate the festive season.

“There were enough and more cakes and sweets available on the shelves, which was rather unusual at Christmas time”, he said, and added that there was more interest in buying bread and buns than goodies for Yuletide.

This shows that people live in constant fear of a lockdown anywhere at any time, he added.

With customers to supermarkets and other business establishments asked to write their contact details in a book maintained for the specific purpose under health regulations, there’s fear amongst visitors that in the event of finding an infected person within the premises, all others would be placed under mandatory quarantine, industry players said.

Who will feed their families if that happens?, was the questioned asked. Some were also of the view that they could even lose their jobs under such circumstances, they added.

Another critical factor is that the pandemic has ripped apart personal incomes with hardly anything left in hand to survive, let alone enjoy Christmas or the impending dawn of a new year, they stressed.

Meanwhile, Army Commander, Shavendra Silva said that inter-provincial travel has not been banned during the festive season but it’s left to the people to take necessary precautions.