The Poonthura residents had a Sunday surprise in store for health workers as they arrived for the day’s COVID-19 testing in the coastal locality.
Flower petals rained on their cars from either side as the vehicles moved towards the Ayush hospital in Poonthura, one of the four swab collection centres here. The claps and the flower petal showers, from a small group of people following all physical distancing protocols, were a far cry from the scenes in Poonthura two days back.
On Friday, Poonthura witnessed strong protests, fuelled partly by lack of access to essential items and partly by false rumours regarding testing. Messages were shared through Whatsapp that the Antigen tests were ineffective and more number of positives were being reported from Poonthura to tarnish the place’s name. There were also reports of lack of facilities in some of the hospitals to which those who tested positive were taken to.
A group of people had surrounded one of the vehicles in which the health workers’ were travelling, banging on the vehicle and shouting at the health workers. As the driver rolled down the windows to explain to the crowd, one of them had put their head inside the head inside the car and coughed. Due to the super spread situation in Ponnthura, with close to 300 cases, the five health workers had to go into quarantine. No swab collection was done at the Ayush hospital over the past two days due to the prevailing situation.
For the past two days, the district administration, local political leaders and church representatives have been communicating with the local population to allay their fears. All this led to the welcome that the health workers received on Sunday.
Lack of awareness
Father Bevinson, Vicar of the Poonthura Church, spoke to the health workers soon after the reception.
“Today, all the people of Poonthura are with you, as one. We all know what led to the unfortunate situation two days back. It is something that could never be tolerated. It happened due to the lack of awareness of one or two persons. We all recognise the efforts that you have put in and the risks that you have taken to help us out in this hour of crisis. All our volunteers and the public here will co-operate with you. The government has also taken positive steps now, although some of these could have been avoided if these steps were taken earlier,” he told the health workers.
