Bhosi, a village of 6,000 people in the Bhokar tehsil of Nanded, has set an example of how to break the Covid-19 chain.
Two months ago, after a wedding ceremony, a girl from the village was found infected with coronavirus. Later, five more patients were found to be positive the following week, which led to a commotion in the whole village.
At this time, a Zilla Parishad member Prakash Deshmukh Bhosikar took the initiative to organise a health camp in the village in coordination with the Gram Panchayat and the Health Department to conduct Covid tests.
Rapid Antigen Test and RT-PCR tests that followed revealed that 119 people were Covid-19 positive.
“It was decided to isolate the patients to break the chain of Covid-19 spreading to others. Accordingly, all the infected people were persuaded to go and live on their fields for a period of 15-17 days, as mandated by the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for people with mild infections. Farm labourers and others who did not own farms, were accommodated in a makeshift 40x 60 shed on Bhosikar’s own farm,” Bhosikar said.
Ashatai, the village health worker and Anganwadi sevika, would visit the fields everyday and interact with the patients.
Food and medicines were also provided on the spot. After 15 to 20 days of isolation, the villagers returned home as Covid-19 negative persons only after a health check-up.
“Separation is the only way to save the villagers from getting infected,” says Lakshmibai Akkemwad, who spent a fortnight in quarantine on the fields.
In a press statement issued by PIB, Nanded Zilla Parishad CEO Varsha Thakur Ghuge said that the Bhosi pattern is a good example of joint coordination between the villagers, people's representatives and the administration, worthy of implementation in other villages of the district and elsewhere.
"A month and a half has passed since then and no new patient has been found in the village. Covid can be fought effectively by adopting the age-old path of isolation - as was being done during the days of plague - even in villages without adequate health facilities," added Bhosikar.