Belagavi village saw 86 Covid deaths in May

BELAGAVI: A village in Belagavi district which did not have a single case of Covid until April this year has reported 86 deaths due to Covid or related complications in May.
Somvasuddi in Raibag taluk has a population of 7,000 and the nearest Covid hospital is 10km away. Villagers said there have been no visible Covid awareness campaigns despite a frightening rise in the number of cases and fatalities in April and May. The village is 35km from Raibag and 90km from Belagavi.
However, Dr Mahesh Kankanavadi, who is the village ayush officer, said that there were 11 Covid deaths, 66 positive cases and six active cases for the April 26-May 31 period. He confirmed the village did not have any Covid case or fatality until the third week of April.
Raibag health officer BS Baane said the taluk reported 62 cases and no fatalities in March before the start of the second wave of the pandemic. In April, the taluk saw 235 cases and four deaths, and 1,825 cases and 81 deaths in May.
Mahadevappa Hollalkar, a farmer from the village whose father died in May after complaining of Covid-like symptoms, said that he had never seen fatalities “on this scale in at least 25 years”. “The village sees about 100 deaths a year. But May was particularly brutal ...,” he said.
He alleged local leaders and the gram panchayat failed to respond to their appeals even after 15 persons died reportedly of Covid-19 in early May. There is a functional primary health centre in the village, but it is not Covid-ready yet.