In what can be termed the first major local revolt during the pandemic, hundreds of residents in Thiruvananthapuram's Poonthura ward have come out of their houses and swarmed the public road in open defiance of the triple lockdown imposed in the coastal ward. A Health Department vehicle was also attacked.
Till now, only guest workers stranded in various parts of the state and desperate to get back home had come out in large numbers. In Poonthura, the 'non-cooperation' move appears to have been triggered by a feeling of unfairness.
"The way the police and the health people are dealing with us will bring death more quickly than COVID. If we sit inside our homes, hunger will consume us. No shops in the area are allowed to open. So we thought it was safer outside," Kristhudas, one of the volunteers who distribute food to houses in the area, told Onmanorama in a charged voice over phone.
After talking to many people in the area, it is clear that utter confusion has given rise to panic. These coastal folk have doubts about what is going on and authorities have not been able to convincingly reassure them.
For them, it now looks like everyone who is being tested is declared positive. "Everyone who goes for the test are told they are positive. (Official figure is 243 positive among 1192 tested.) Most of these are healthy men with no symptoms. It was then we knew that what is being done were not the real test (RT-PCR tests) but some other test called antigen tests. Some of us have googled and found that antigen tests were quick and cheap but were unreliable," said Francis Lazar, a sociology graduate in Poonthura.
Health officials admit that they have not been able to address the test-related concerns of the coastal folk. "Antigen tests are as accurate as RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) tests. We suspect that they have mistaken antigen test for antibody test, which of course is not confirmatory. ICMR itself has issued an advisory saying that if declared positive in an antigen test, there was no need for a re-confirmatory RT-PCR test," a top Health Department official said.
One of the major worries in the area is that those taken to hospitals were not being subjected to confirmatory tests. In Lazar' words "the real test". "They are just being dumped in crowded wards and no real tests are being done. We fear they will really contract COVID if they are put in such a dangerous situation," Lazar said. Priya Biju, the ward member of nearby Manikkavilakom, said she had been constantly receiving panic calls from those taken to hospitals.
The Poonthura folk also have genuine apprehensions about their neighbours, friends and relatives who have now been isolated in hospitals. "Almost all of them have been taken to largely avoided hospitals in faraway places like Varkala, Vattappara and Karakkonam. they are put in crowded rooms with only one or two toilets. If everyone is put so close together, won't it expose even those without any symptoms or no disease to all to a more severe infection," said Jinu, a postgraduate holder who runs he only library in Poonthura.
"Many of our kids have been taken to these far off hospitals," Jinu said. He said his 10-year-old nephew had called him in the morning. "The boy told me he was given 'puttu' for breakfast. He was not served any curry, not even a spoon of sugar. He tried to eat but it was so dry that he couldn't eat," Jinu said.
Health minister K K Shailaja teacher said two 150-bed temporary hospitals would soon be erected near Poonhura to treat locals.
The huge presence of the men in uniform has also provoked resistance. "They go around threatening people and calling bad words as if we are animals that are better kept tied in a shed," Krishtudas said.
All Poonthura residents Onmanorama talked to complained that not a single shop in the area was allowed to open. "In other pars of Thiruvananthapuram, even in neighbouring wards that have more cases, shops are allowed to open between 7 and 11 in the morning. Not here," Jinu said.
They are also particularly irritated by the presence of the Coast Guard along the Poonthura coast. "We feel it is just a show, only to tell the world that the government is keeping the unruly Poonthura residents in check. If they really want to prevent us from going into the sea, the Coast Guard should be deployed at Vizhnjam. Because during these monsoon months when the sea is rough we are no fools to go fishing from Poonthura. We travel by road to Vizhinjam harbour and it is from there we begin our journey," Lazar said.
It s also felt there is unnecessary emphasis on Poonthura. "When the media reports that there are 100 cases in Poonthura, there is a sudden fear about our place in the minds of others," said ward member Poonthura Solomon. "Reality is most of the cases are in Puthenpally, Manikkavilakom and Ambalathara. But it is Poonthura alone that is projected," Solomon said.
