Telangana: Covid positive villagers make forest their isolation centre

“Finally, we convinced them and shifted them to a local primary school which we designated as an isolation centre,” in-charge District Collector of Bhupalpally S Krishna Aditya said.

Jayashankar Bhupalpally: At least 20 residents of Yatnaram village in Mahamutharam mandal in the district, who moved to the forest area on the outskirts of the village and stayed there for the last three days in isolation after they tested positive for Covid-19, were shifted to a local primary school on Thursday.

The villagers decided to isolate themselves in the forest after they tested positive for the virus as they were reluctant to get admitted to the government isolation centre despite several pleas by the district authorities who were taken aback by the villagers’ decision to self isolate themselves in the forest.

“Finally, we convinced them and shifted them to a local primary school which we designated as an isolation centre,” in-charge District Collector of Bhupalpally S Krishna Aditya said.

According to sources, more than 30 people were infected by the virus in the last three days. Since it is a small village located in the deep forest near Godavari River, it was suspected that the residents would have been infected since some of them were working as labourers at Kannaigudem barrage site.

Meanwhile, 20 of them started staying in the forest on the village outskirts making it their ‘isolation centre’. While some were provided with food by the family members living in the village, some others are cooking the meals there itself.

Earlier, when contacted, Krishna Aditya said the villagers were staying ‘willingly’ in the forest area. “The local MPDO and other mandal officials visited the village and requested them to come to the isolation centre. But they turned down the pleas stating that they wanted to be in the forest as they could go for chilli pickings during the harvest time,” he said. The district administration also handed over medical kits to the COVID infected persons after conducting a medical camp in the village.

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