Street vendors protest coronavirus lock-down in Mexico City

About 200 street vendors briefly blocked several major avenues in downtown Mexico City on Saturday to demand y be allowed to sell again amid coronavirus pandemic.

sidewalks of colonial-era downtown are usually crowded with vendors who lay out ir wares on wire racks or blankets. But since March, city has banned such informal commerce and closed most established businesses in district to stem spre of new coronavirus.

Protesting vendors carried signs and chanted slogans claiming y could longer bear lockdown. Most have unemployment insurance, and after three months of t selling many are growing desperate.

Officials h allowed a partial reopening of downtown this week although virus cases continue to climb, but y reversed course Friday after a lack of sanitary measures were reported at some stores. While most customers and employees wore some form of face mask, many stores didn’t reduce number of clients allowed in or provide required foot-wiping ps or sanitizer gel.

joint reopening plan required active participation of government, public and store owners, and Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said it would w be rethought.

Reopening plans in or parts of city were t affected by reversal on downtown area.