Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Tajani: "We will immediately open 26 uncovered markets to respond effectively and promptly to the needs of citizens, especially the elderly." A multi-phase program to guarantee an important service for citizens while respecting safety distances

Milan, May 5 2020 – From Thursday 7 May Milan finds its uncovered markets again. In fact, 26 will return to operation on an experimental basis for food operators only, out of 94 that normally take place in the city. The reopening program developed by the Department of Productive Activities and Commerce in collaboration with the local police and trade associations for commerce in public areas provides for a gradual multi-phase resumption of the uncovered markets, in line with the provisions issued by the Government and by the Lombardy Region for the containment of the virus during Phase 2 of the CoViD emergency.

“We have prepared a plan of 26 openings based on gradualness, prudence and coverage of both central and peripheral neighbourhoods, capable of responding effectively and promptly to the needs of citizens, especially elderly people who frequent the open markets – explains the councilor to Labor Policies, Productive Activities and Trade Cristina Tajani –. The discussion with street vendors and their associations was important: the common objective is the protection of the health of citizens and workers, without forgetting the serious economic suffering of a category that has suffered a serious loss of income in recent months".

The first phase involves the reopening of 26 weekly markets (4 markets per day from Monday to Friday and 6 markets on Saturday) with a total capacity of 1.124 spaces, exclusively for food (34% of the 3.336 total food holders). For this phase, those markets that insist on central parterres, car parks, open squares and streets that do not present promiscuity with residential accesses or public and private buildings were preferred. Furthermore, an experiment will be conducted in a market located in a residential street, the Saturday market in Via Fauchè, where a preventive inspection was carried out in the presence of the Civil Protection.

The market locations, to protect the health of citizens and operators, will be delimited and fenced and will have mandatory access and exit gates, which will limit close intersections between people as much as possible. The gates will be manned by dedicated staff who, in addition to regulating the influx, will be able to detect the body temperature of citizens before entry.

To limit concentration as much as possible, the maximum capacity will be defined, referring to the number of people present at the same time within the market areas, which in any case cannot exceed double the number of stands. Entry will be allowed to only one member per family, except for those who need to bring with them children under the age of 14, people with disabilities or the elderly.

Each commercial operator must necessarily use a mask and gloves. The sales counters will be positioned alternately in a checkerboard pattern or in a single row, maintaining a minimum distance of 2,5 meters between one operator and another. Each counter will have a maximum of two sales staff present and in this phase the ticking operations, i.e. the daily assignments on temporarily free parking spaces, will be suspended.

In the next few days, the municipal administration will sign specific agreements with trade associations and commercial operators for carrying out monitoring and surveillance activities at access gates and market areas. The associations, as required by the Regional Ordinance, will also make a "CoViD manager" available in each market, with the task of coordinating the staff on site, for the purposes of assisting customers and market operators as well as supervising the implementation of the prevention and safety measures.

The second phase - which will start after the first experimental week - involves the gradual activation of further markets, in order to allow the relocation of all food operators with parking spaces in the Milanese markets.

The sale of non-food products remains prohibited until at least May 18th. When government decrees and regional ordinances allow it, the third phase will be able to begin with the definitive reintroduction of all product types and the reopening of activities for all approximately 10 thousand operators present in the city markets.

The reopening program envisaged by the Administration will be modular and flexible due to the need to respect any new quota rules imposed by the Government and the Lombardy Region during phase 2 of the emergency. Only if stringent distancing rules remain in the future such as to lead to a drastic reduction in available space in the markets will it be necessary to adopt a rotation system between operators, imposing alternating frequency.

Thursday 7 May at 11 am at the market in via San Marco, councilor Cristina Tajani will illustrate the new structure of the markets.

Map of the first discovered markets that will open starting from May 7th