LALITPUR: Various marketplaces inside the Kathmandu Valley are chock-a-block with shoppers as the festive season has already started and people are ignoring health safety protocols.

With Dashain, Hindu’s greatest festival, just a week away, people are busy shopping, hugely violating rules such as maintaining social distance, wearing face masks and adopting proper sanitization measures.

Meanwhile, Nepal reported as many as 5,008 new cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Saturday alone, including 2,672 cases in the Valley.

Here are some photos taken by Republica Photojournalist Monika Malla in the Lagankhel and Mangal Bazaar areas on Saturday.

 
• COVID-19
 
• coronavirus
 
• Kathmandu
 
• marketplace