The West: Death a daily occurrence here
LUCKNOW/MEERUT: Western UP districts are considered more prosperous. The region has better medical facilities in their towns. But villagers though not short of finances, fail to avail of timely treatment for their patients either out of their ignorance or lack of facilities like testing and transportation.
Many villagers claim that often people suffer from fever and, thereafter, breathlessness and die. Sanawwar Chauhan of Khardauni village in Meerut district explained the disease was spreading primarily because people suffering from Covid-like symptoms meet others in the absence of testing. Unknowingly, they infect the others.
Khardauni is a big village with population of over 10,000 and Chauhan claimed that more than 1,000 people are suffering from fever in the village. Speaking to HT over the phone, Chauhan said: “I am at the funeral of a farmer Sharafat, 55, who died after having Covid-like symptoms.”
Chauhan claimed that two or three persons had been dying in the village every day for the last one week and, on Wednesday, they buried four bodies. He and many other villagers fear that Covid-19 has gripped the villages and the situation is worsening with each passing day.
They also claimed that they apprised the ANM (auxiliary nurse midwife) and ASHA (accredited social health activist) workers about the situation to seek help for proper testing and treatment of villagers, but nothing has happened as yet.
The Asha workers who had played a pivotal role in the screening and providing medical services to villagers during the first wave of Covid-19 are again being deployed by the state government, which had issued an order for screening and monitoring migrants returning home from various states.
But a majority of the 1.54 lakh Asha workers complain of poor or no protective gear.
Almost 40 km away in Tatarpur village in Hapur district, at least seven people died in the past one week. A villager Manoj Kumar claimed that at least four of them tested Covid-19 positive. The village has a population of over 7,000 and Manoj claimed that people were suffering from fever in big numbers. He also said that the situation was turning grim in the villages without proper treatment and testing.
Dr Rajendra Tyagi at Rehdra village in Meerut district held the panchayat elections responsible for the spread of the Covid-19 infection in the villages. He said that ballot papers passed through many hands before reaching the voters and could be a source of infection. Tyagi claimed that a genuine checkup could reveal the truth of Covid-19 in the villages.
Dr Ankur Tyagi is in-charge of the community health centre ( CHC) at Hastinapur, which serves 91 villages. He had no hesitation in admitting that the virus had penetrated the villages.
He explained that if 100 people tested positive in an urban CHC (community health centre) then 20 to 50 were being tested positive in rural CHCs.
He expressed anguish about villagers’ lack of interest in getting vaccinated due to a false fear. His team was given a target to vaccinate 13,000 people in villages of the age of 60 years and above under his CHC but, in spite of their “best efforts”, they could vaccinate 8,000 people.
Dr Rajendra Tyagi, too, supported his claim and said villagers were somehow scared of vaccination. “Less vaccination in villages was one of the major reasons for spread of the virus in rural areas,” he added.
Jagdish Singh, the pradhan (head) of Chabaria village in Meerut district, also said that coronavirus had spread in the villages. He said that most of the villagers had a casual approach towards fever. “Therefore, the infection becomes severe in a few days without adequate diagnosis and treatment,” he added.
He also said deaths of these people found no place in government records because they were cremated at farms in the villages.
Reports of people suffering from fever in villages of Baghpat were also highlighted in the media last week and many of them were said to have died during home treatment.
At least 10 people died in the Sadharanpur Khurd village of Inchauli area in Meerut district since April 25. Their family members claimed they died after consuming liquor distributed by two candidates of the panchayat elections.
Superintendent of police (Rural) Keshav Mishra claimed that many of them had Covidlike symptoms and they probably died of Covid-19 or some other disease. He said that three people also died in a village of the area, and they too had symptoms like Covid-19.
Chief medical officer (Meerut) Dr Akhilesh Mohan said instructions had been given to the health staff to conduct tests in the villages if they came across reports of “corona- like symptoms”.
“I have not received any specific report of Covid-19 spread in the villages,” he clarified.