TIRUCHY: Though the focus of Covid combat has now steadily shifted from Chennai to the West of State, news reports and social media posts have, however, only engrossed in the grievances of city residents. Even if a vegetable cart comes late to a city street, netizens grouse about it all over the internet tagging authorities, who soon set into motion a resolution. So, are we aware of how the villages in Tamil Nadu are fighting this pandemic, and what challenges they face?
For instance, take the villages that fall under Andhanallur union in Tiruchy district. There are 25 village panchayats comprising a total of 112 villages under this union.
With the support of local body representatives, the block development officers formed 104 teams, who have been conducting door-to-door screening here since May 27. The volunteers were provided with oximeters, thermal scanners, and forms to fill in details.
The volunteers visit every household in the village and check residents’ oxygen level and temperature, after enquiring about any recent illness or symptoms. If any villager indicates any infection risk, the volunteers immediately alert it to the block medical officer.
House, street sanitised on detection of infection
We begin the screening around 7 am and take a break at 11 am. We also visit houses during the evening hours, says Magudeswaran, one of the volunteers.
“Many people are nervous and it takes some convincing on our part to secure all the details. The volunteers are all residents of these villages and that is a huge benefit. We also sensitise them to getting the vaccine shots,” he adds.
According to Andhanallur panchayat union chairman Durairaj, around 80 per cent of the screening work at the 25 village panchayats is over. “Remaining works will be compl e t ed by Monday evening. To expedite the process, we also roped in more volunteers on Sunday. The screening will be taken up every weekend hereafter,” he said, adding that the lockdown has not been a major challenge here as all villagers here are farmers and they grow their own vegetables.
Further, the BDOs and local body representatives are a busy lot, ensuring vegetable distribution and issuing passes for the farmers to take their produce to the Gandhi Market in Tiruchy.
“Identifying those who require vehicle passes was effortless because we had the support of village panchayat presidents. We had also sought their help for disinfection and containment works,” BDO Nirmala said.