Hyderabad: While India is reeling under a massive COVID-19 pandemic, there are some of the villages in Telangana untouched yet by the virus.
Dammayyapeta in Kodimyal block of Jagtial district is one such village where not a single case of COVID-19 has surfaced yet. There are about 293 houses in Dammayyapeta with most of the young people in the village educated about the COVID-19 protocols through newspapers and television channels.
The combination of rural awareness, discipline, wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and good health has enabled them to avoid infection.
The self-discipline of the villagers is a major reason why no case of COVID-19 has been registered since the first wave of the pandemic, “We held a meeting of the gram panchayat and adopted a resolution on how to follow the rules and avoid spreading of Covid-19. It has yielded good results; touchwood, we haven’t witnessed even a single case of the infection in our village till now,” Dammayyapeta sarpanch Tuniki Narsaiah told Hindustan Times.
Aware of the rise of COVID-19, the villagers gathered and decided to stay away from crowded places. All seasonal weddings were cancelled last year.
“It was a collective decision by the entire village. The weddings are confined only to the families of the grooms and the brides. Unlike in the past, no relatives or friends are allowed and no marriage feasts,” K Sudhakar, a village youth, said.
“Marriages are confined to the families of the bride and groom. Unlike in the past, no relatives or friends are allowed and no wedding ceremonies are held,” said Sudhakar, a young youth from the village.
The gram panchayat officials laid a special focus on cleanliness, adding that the village will be cleaned once in three days with sodium hypochlorite solution.
“We are not allowing any outsider to enter the village unless they have valid reasons and only if the person does not have the symptoms of COVID-19. However, we are not insisting such people produce a Covid-19 negative certificate,” Narsaiah said.
There is another small village Jagannathpur in Raikal block of the Jagitial district that has not recorded a single COVID-19 case during the second wave. The villagers displayed a better understanding, as was evident in the result.
“It was because of strict adherence to the COVID-19 guidelines by all the villagers that COVID did not enter the village,” said Vijaya, sarpanch of the village.
Villagers know that they will be able to beat COVID-19, regularly fever check-up is conducted to identify the COVID-19 infected patients, said Jagtial district medical and health officer Puppala Sridhar.
“It is really commendable that some of these villages have been following the COVID-19 guidelines sincerely to avoid the spread of the virus – a sense which is lacking in many urban areas,” he said, as quoted in the news report.
As reported by the Hindustan Times, the unconfirmed reports said that there are more villages free from COVID-19 infection are villages in Nirmal district, Pentadari, Ippacharmi and Lakshmi Nagar of Saarangapur block, besides Gollapalli village of Devaruppula block of Jangaon district, and Chainpaka village of Chityal block in Jayashankar Bhupalpalli district.