In Mexico, one of world's biggest food markets stirs unease about infections

MEXICO CITY: Every day, thousands of Mexicans crowd a massive food market that is a linchpin of the capital's food supply, though it sits at the heart of a major hotspot for the virus.

Mexico City's sprawling Central de Abasto market, stretching across an area equivalent to about 327 football pitches, poses a major headache for officials trying to keep food supplies flowing without magnifying the spread of the Coronavirus.

It is a daunting task in a market known to attract about a half a million people a day in normal times, according to figures from officials in Iztapalapa, a neighborhood with the highest numbers of Coronavirus infections in Mexico.

In addition to shoppers and wholesale buyers who throng the market at night to supply retail outlets in the metropolis, another 100,000 workers typically cram the corridors lined with sacks of potatoes, rice and boxes of bananas.

Local officials have not detailed how many visitors the market is receiving during the quarantine, but the market's organizers say vehicle traffic has fallen by about 30%.

In early May, the capital's government included the shopping complex in a list of 89 areas deemed to have “highrisk of contagion” as part of efforts to prevent an outbreak.

Still, completely shutting the market that serves a sizeable swath of Mexico's 25 million people is not an option, said Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, because it would devastate the regional food supply.

“Central de Abasto cannot be closed, ”sheinbaum said late

last month.

“We are taking very strict measures so that as few people as possible go.”

Unlike those living in the

leafy upscale areas of Mexico's cosmopolitan capital, the drivers, cleaners and vendors in the working class Iztapalapa area say they have no choice but to risk the virus.

“The government says to stay in quarantine. So how are we going to eat?”, asked Fernando Torres, one of the thousands of people who works in the market.

“I know that I am in the hands of God,” added Torres, sporting a cloth mask over his face. “If God says, ‘The Coronavirus will take you,' it will take me. But I try to take care of myself.”