TENKASI: Didn’t undergo Covid test? No ration! This decision of heath officials seems to have clicked, as the number of residents of Kalathimadam village who approached the mass-testing camp increased from a mere 20 on Thursday to more than 100 on Sunday.
The officials decided to organise the camp after they sensed something amiss in the village that saw 12 deaths in the last three weeks. But contrary to their expectation, on the first day of the camp on Thursday, only a few turned up.
With no other go, the officials asked the workers of a fair price shop in the locality to stop distributing ration and forcibly took swab samples of those who had lined up in front of the outlet.
A health official said that on Thursday, they were able to take the samples of just 20 villagers, and among them eight tested positive for the infection. “Two other symptomatic sexagenarians of the village had tested positive at the beginning of this month. A woman who was admitted to a Madurai-based private hospital was the first person in the village to test positive for Covid-19,” he said.
Why this reluctance?
(Continued from page 1) A revenue official said not all the 12 deaths are due to Coronavirus infection. “An 81-year-old man from the village died due to the Covid-19 in Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TvMCH). As the villagers were not aware that the man was Covid positive, his body was cremated without undertaking precautionary measures.
Only two days after the cremation that they came to know about the Covid status of the man. Though the officials were instructed to intensify testing in the village, the people did not turn up as they were afraid of the social stigma attached to the infection,” he said. Sources said that until Saturday, 12 villagers have been tested positive for the virus infection. “Asthma and diabetics patients were there among the 12 who died,” they said, adding that health officials, on Saturday, sealed the streets where the positive cases were identified.