Hyderabad: Aarogya Setu must to enter malls

Hyderabad: With corona positive cases increasing alarmingly in the city, the malls have made it mandatory for the visitors to produce 'Aarogya Setu' mobile application for ensuring safety of the other visitors in the malls.

Though the malls were opened on Monday after a gap of two and half months, people seemed to be reluctant to venture around for shopping. Very few people visited the malls and those who visited had to go through the Covid-19 protocols to enter the shopping arena.

People who went to the shopping malls were stopped at the entrance and asked to show their mobile phones and 'Aarogya Setu' mobile applications for entry into the mall. The visitors were asked to download the application and show the message 'You are Safe' on the application for entry into a mall at Erramanzil. The visitors had to undergo thermal scanning, hand sanitizing, maintaining physical distance.

J Rishi, who came to the mall, said the security personnel at the mall stopped them and asked them to open the Arogya Setu app for entering the mall apart from going through thermal scanning. "Fortunately, we had already downloaded the app and showed it to them. The personnel asked us to open the app and after noticing the 'You are Safe' message, they allowed us inside the mall," said Rishi.

It may be mentioned here that the Central government is insisting citizens to install the Aarogya Setu app in their mobiles. The Centre had also made it mandatory for the people travelling in Shramik Specials to install the app.

Rishi further said that the personnel in the mall were waiting with sanitizers and thermal screening devices at different points. "We had to sanitize our hands at least three times before getting into the shopping mode and we had no issues as this was done for our safety," said Rishi.

The personnel in the malls were also taking precautions like applying face shields, wearing gloves and ensuring the area does not get over crowded. Some of the visitors were made to wait outside the shopping enclosure allowing only a limited number of visitors.

The customers who visited malls could not find offers and other discounts and the malls had limited staff.

Customers who came into a popular mall near Kachiguda said that there was not enough staff to clear their doubts. The customers inquired about the discounts and the personnel said that presently there were no discounts. A G Yash, who came to buy shirts said, "There is no A/C in the mall, not much staff and they are not even allowing us to take trials of the clothes we are purchasing. What if the clothes size differs? Will they replace it?" He said that the only facility the mall had was hand sanitizers and thermal scanners at entrance and billing point. The mall personnel said that because of the Covid-19 conditions they were not allowing trials and functioning with limited staff. They said that it would take some time for normalcy.