MYSURU: Call it either the fear following the oxygen tragedy that claimed lives of over 37 people at the district hospital in Chamarajanagar, or the tedious 3-4 hours of travel to reach the nearest Covid Care Centre or district hospital, many Covid-infected villagers in the border areas of Karnataka-Tamil Nadu in Chamarajanagar district are crossing over to Tamil Nadu for treatment.
With the second Covid wave spreading fast in the hinterlands, many villages along the borders are seeing a huge spike in cases. People from Gopinathapuram, Martalli, Nallore, Nala Road and other villages are going to hospitals in Mettur, Kolathuru, Sathyamangalam, Salem and other major towns that have good medical infrastructure. “We are more comfortable in the adjacent town than district headquarters that is 180 km away,” a villager said.
Mani, a resident of Nellore village, said, “As I developed symptoms, I gave my sample for testing, but it took four days to get the results. I then decided to go to Kollathuru where I got hospitalised and got all the tests done. Many people from Nala Road, Marathalli panchayat and other border villages in the taluk are doing the same.”
Informed about this, District Minister S Suresh Kumar and Deputy Commissioner M R Ravi visited these villages and appealed to the villagers to use the CCC facilities in MM Hills and Hanur. The district administration is finding it difficult to trace the primary and secondary contacts of the infected people as many disappear after contracting the virus to various places in Tamil Nadu for treatment.