51 out of 141 residents of Uttarakhand village test positive for COVID-19

Fifty-one out of the 141 people living in a village in Uttarakhand's Pauri district have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said on Saturday.

The village has been declared a containment zone and villagers have been put in home isolation, they said.

Residents of Kurkhyal village in Pauri's Ekeshwar block had been showing symptoms of COVID-19 like fever for some time. A health department team from the primary health centre at Pathisain took samples of villagers for testing on May 11, said Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Satpuli, Sandip Kumar.

The reports were received on Friday. Fifty-one out of the total 141 villagers were found infected with the coronavirus, he said.

The villagers have been put in home isolation and given medicine kits while the village has been declared a containment zone, he added.

As a precautionary measure, Kumar said, the nearby market at Pathisain has also been closed.

Six residents of a village adjoining Kurkhyal have also tested positive for COVID-19, he said.

Anganwadi volunteers have been asked to remain in touch with the infected people in villages so that they can be shifted to the COVID care centre in Satpuli in case their condition deteriorates, he said.

Recently, there has been a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in rural areas across the country.

On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the pandemic is spreading fast in rural areas and that every state government is making efforts to stop this.

Awareness about this among rural people and cooperation of the panchayat institutes are equally important, he said.