Amid surge, a village in Kerala fiercely guards against pandemic
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ata time when the pandemic is fast spreading within the rural areas of the country; there is a small tribal hamlet in Idukki that is fiercely resisting the virus. Not a single Covid-19 case has been reported from Edamalakudi in Idukki district in last one and a half years. According to villagers, enough hard work, surveillance and collective activities are behind this feat.
The Covid guidelines, such as physical distancing, hand hygine, proper masking and travel restrictions are in place just as any other part of the country, except that people of this tribal village with a population of 2,250 enforce them strictly and fines are heavy for those who flout the rules.
Situated around 40 kms away from Munnar, villagers keep a 24x7 vigil and visitors if any, even if they are government servants, have to carry an RT-PCR test report taken 48 hours ago. The majority of the populace in this village are from the Muduva tribe. Inspired by Edamalakudi’s feat; many tribal hamlets are planning to replicate its selflockdown mode to contain the surge. This is happening at a time when in more than 80 local bodies in the state, the test positivity rate (TPR) is above 50% in three panchayats in Thirssur and Ernakulam it is above 75 %.
“It is a model worth emulating for others. In the hamlet ‘Nattukoottam’ (a collective of elders and others) is powerful. Every week two persons from the village go out to fetch essentials and they will have to be quarantined for two weeks,” said Devikulam sub-collector S Premkrishanan. Perched on a hilly terrain there is no direct road connectivity to the village and it is more or less self-sufficient and majority of the people work in forest and tribal departments in nearby areas. “Many such tribal hamlets are imposing self-lockdown to get away from the surge. Situated in remote areas, people here realise the gravity if the virus spread to their areas. It is good they are coming out with their own mechanism to contain it,” said M J Babu, a senior journalist hailing from Munnar. True, many villages in Idukki and Wayanad districts have barred outsiders and imposed self-lockdown days before government enforced it on May 8.
Meanwhile, there is no let up in pandemic woes as the state on Wednesday reported 43,529 cases with a test positivity rate of 29.75 %, highest since the outbreak began. It also reported 95 deaths taking total fatalities to 6,053, while the active caseload is 4,32,789.
“We have started vaccinating the 18-44 age group. Due to shortage, priority will be given to people who interact with public more like delivery boys, drivers, daily-wage earners and others. We have given order for 10 million doses but got only 5,00,000,” said CM Pinarayi Vijayan.