By Mohammad Suaib Khan

Ghaziabad, May 20 (IANS): The second Covid wave is wreaking havoc in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh. Just 30 minutes drive from Delhi, a village in Ghaziabad has lost up to 100 people due to Covid like symptoms in just over a month.

Residents of Nahal village in Ghaziabad say that after the panchayat elections, the situation started deteriorating. After April 15, people in the village suddenly started falling ill, complaining of mild fever and cough.

Long queues began forming outside doctors' clinics, however, many people recovered after taking the medicine. Those whose condition deteriorated were taken to the big hospitals by their family members. The local hospital is about 5 kilometres from the village.

According to the people of Nahal village, from April 15 till May 10 as many as 10 people died in a single day. On other days 3-4 people died daily. The villagers claim that the situation worsened so much that more than 100 people have died in about 30 days in the village.

Munnawar, the former head of Nahal village, said, "People got fever and their throats were choked. About 112 people lost their lives. The oxygen cylinders were not available. People started dying after developing pneumonia like symptoms."

"Those who could not visit big hospitals, got the treatment in the village itself as they had no other option. No one came to check on behalf of the government. One person died yesterday also," he added.

Zakir Hussain, a resident of Nahal village, said, "The situation in the village was fine until the panchayat elections. But after that the situation started deteriorating. People got fever and they went to quacks for treatment."

"Some people were cured, but when more people started falling sick, the situation worsened. Some people were taken to the private hospitals for treatment."

He said that "During the second wave, a woman came for vaccination, but no one came forward to get the jab. Recently, the SDM called some doctors from the village and gave them corona kits."

However, Tasavvar, the current village head, said all the deaths were not related to corona. "Some patients were suffering from cancer and some had other serious illnesses. No tests were done, so cause of death is not known."

"We distributed 63 corona kits, 25 more are to come. If someone displays symptoms of corona, then we give them these kits."

When asked why only 63 corona kits were distributed in a village of 40,000 people, he said, "Kits started coming only after the elections were over. There was no responsible man in the village and nothing came from anywhere."

When IANS spoke to the SDM (Sadar) D.P. Singh on this issue, he said he had no knowledge of the situation in the village. He said, "We are distributing the medicine advance kits through the monitoring committees. If there are any symptoms, then they are being tested."

But the villagers said no tests were done. In response to this, the SDM Sadar said, "Tests are being done in nearby Dasna CHC".

According to him, "After the lockdown was enforced and people started living indoors, the number of cases came down, less people fell sick."

However, there is panic in the village after such a large number of deaths were reported. But it is not known how many deaths were due to corona.

A villager said, "Despite being the largest village in the district, there is not a single big hospital here." A small hospital was built about 15 years ago. A nurse came for a few days, but that too was closed."

Haji Tayeb was born in Nahal village. He told IANS, "Most people go to Devi hospital in Dasna for treatment. There are also some doctors in the village, but no Covid tests were done, nor anyone from the government came."

"People died only after they came back to the village due to lack of space in the hospitals," he said.

According to another former head of the village, Dr Fazal Ahmed, "if you want to know the situation in the village, that will happen only after conducting tests. Since no tests were done, so cause of deaths was also not known."