It looks as if the coastal regions in Thiruvananthapuram, where community transmission was officially declared for the first time in the country, have had enough of COVID-19. It is now business as usual along the coast.
The men go out in groups to fish and the underwater booty they bring back are sold by women in makeshift wayside markets that have sprouted all over the place as if in retaliation to the shutting down of institutional fish markets. Shops are open, women chat in groups and boisterous men can be found huddled together playing cards.
This letting go, this collective disdain for a deadly virus, is not just a desperate attempt to regain livelihoods. It is also powered by the community's fabled gambler's instinct. The coastal folk have refused to make themselves available for testing.
"It is foolish to fear a virus when we have faced waves as tall as coconut trees," said Nelson, a 45-year-old fisherman in Poonthura who lost his left eye and badly damaged his left hand when his boat capsized mid-ocean 15 years ago.
Abandoned CFLTCs
For health officials fighting COVID, the fisherman's spirit of adventure is a big worry.
"They say they cannot allow themselves to be taken away from their work and homes, and put in crowded places where there will be no one to look after them and where only vitamin tablets are given," a health inspector working in the Vizhinjam area said.
He was referring to the coastal folk's suspicion of Covid first-line treatment centres (CFLTCs) that have come up in almost all the coastal wards and panchayats. More than 1000 of the 4500 CFLTC beds are lying vacant.
A CFLTC each in Poonthura and Karumkulam, two large coastal clusters, had closed down in the last week.
Kottapuram's revenge
It is hard to persuade people to get themselves tested even in highly affected coastal areas like Poonthura, Pulluvila, Kottapuram, Puthukurichy and Anchuthengu.
"Two days before we held a camp for five wards (Vizhinjam, Kottapuram, Mulloor, Harbour and Venganoor) and the only person who turned up tested positive. And this man came only because he was planning to travel abroad and so had to take a test," the health inspector attached to the Vizhinjam primary health centre said.
Kottapuram is the worst affected among the five, and its residents are also the most adamant about not taking tests. "A pregnant lady who had tested positive in the ward had died during childbirth at the SAT Hospital (the hospital for women and children within the Medical College campus). Ever since, Kottapuram residents have refused to take tests," the health official said.
Poonthura rebellion
The indifference is far more severe in the biggest COVID cluster of them all: Poonthura.
"It has been nearly a month since people in Poonthura have stopped going to tests. Only those wanting to go to work outside or travel abroad go to the PHC to take a COVID test," said Jinu, a youth volunteer who runs the only library in the area. "There is a feeling here that life has become better after people threw away their COVID fears and resumed normal life," he added.
Their demands for normalcy became so shrill that the district administration on Monday lifted the restriction related to fishing days. Henceforth, fisherfolk from Poonthura can go fishing on all days.
As part of efforts to keep the crowd at the Vizhinjam harbour under control, coastal wards were assigned specific days for fishing. Poonthura residents, for instance, could go fishing only twice a week, on Thursdays and Fridays. These restrictions are now off.
Fake news that stalled tests
The apathy towards testing is as widespread and severe along the coast as the virus itself that health officials and local body representatives have stopped trying.
"Earlier we used to knock on doors of primary contacts and tried to convince them of the need to do tests. When it was clear nothing would work, we reduced the frequency of tests," said a health official at Anchuthengu, a coastal panchayat at the north of th district and also one of the largest coastal clusters with over 500 confirmed cases.
"People are not coming for the tests. A rumour has spread that the tests are just a means for the panchayat to make money, and the locals have surprisingly believed in this misinformation," said Yesudasan Stephen, the Anchuthengu ward member and vice president of the panchayat.
"And when we ask them to go for tests, they tell us that COVID is just ordinary fever. They also question the need for tests saying that there was anyway no treatment for the disease other than taking Crocin tablets and rest, which they say they can manage sitting at home," Yesudsan added.
A new dawn in south
A steep drop in testing rate in the southern parts of the coast, on the other hand, seem to indicate a healthy trend. Positive cases have fallen sharply in big clusters like Karumkulm, Poovar and Kottukal, and therefore the frequency of tests, too, have.
Two days before, 36 tests were done in Karumkulam and all were negative. "Now, there is no need to do tests daily or even on alternate days. We seem to have flattened the curve," said G Anil Kumar, the president of Karumkulam ward under which falls the second biggest coastal cluster after Poonthura, Pulluvila.
In nearby Kottukal, 57 tests were done in its two coastal wards - Ambalathumoola and Adimlathura - two days ago and all were negative. Five days ago 97 tests were done in these two coastal wards and none was positive. Poovar had also recorded just two positive cases in the last two camps.
