Amidst the 2nd wave of the pandemic, it has now come to light that 21 people have died in less than 3 weeks in a village in Rajasthan after Coronavirus protocols during the burial of an infected patient were violated. The incident took place in the Kheerva village in the Laxmangarh tehsil of Sikar district in Rajasthan.
As per reports, the village has a population of about 3500 people. The ‘unusually high number of deaths has alerted the health officials in the State. Interestingly, only four out of 21 deaths have been officially registered as Covid-19 fatalities. The data was recorded between April 16 and May 5 this year. The spike in deaths in the small village has added to the fears of a ‘community spread.’ The State health officials visited the Kheerva village on Friday (May 7) and collected random samples.
The deceased include Gafur Kha (101), Bismillah (80), Jannat Bano (62), Hafiz Bano (95), Elaiji Bano (78), Salamat Bano (65), Mahtab Khan (87), Bihari Lal Sharma (71) Javed Khan (32), Majeed Khan (88), Bismillah Bano (83), Jannat Bano (73), Chhotu Kha (81) Taj Bano (71) Banu (70), Hajra Bano (81), and Alam Khatoon (69).
Coronavirus patient buried without following guidelines, local MLA shares story
Reportedly, a Coronavirus patient was buried last month on April 16 without adhering to Coronavirus protocols. The deceased’s body was taken out of the plastic body bag and touched by several villagers, who facilitated the burial.
The matter came to light after local Congress MLA Govind Singh Dotasra shared the story on social media and inferred that the death of 21 people in the village was caused due to violation of Coronavirus guidelines. Meanwhile, the local administration claimed that the patient did not die of Coronavirus infection.
Local administration denies death due to Covid, villagers accuse MLA of peddling fake news
At the same time, the residents of Kheerva village have also denied that the 21 deaths were linked to Coronavirus. They also accused the MLA and Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasra of peddling misinformation. Later, Dotasra also deleted his social media post. On being asked by the Times of India about the reason for deleting his social media post, he claimed that the local administration told him that the patient did not die due to Covid-19.
Village keeps no record of deaths, making it vulnerable to Covid-19
In his clarification, the MLA said, “Still, the team of doctors was sent to find out the reason behind the unusual number of deaths in the village. A total of 157 RT-PCR samples were collected to determine the scale of infection in the village.” While describing the dismal condition of record-keeping in the village, Sarpanch Hakim Ali emphasised, “Sometimes we don’t record a single death in a year, while the average is around five to six. This is too high.”