COVID-19 wreaks havoc in Odisha’s Nuapada; families left destitute

The second wave of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is wreaking havoc in western Odisha’s Nuapada district, leaving families destitute.

The district, bordering Chhattisgarh that has had its own share of COVID-19 mayhem, has already witnessed 87 deaths in the second wave from April 1-May 3, 2021, according to official figures.

The contagion is killing bread earners, leaving behind broken families who do not even have the most basic of necessities.

Daily wage labourer Ashok’s father Mangal Singh Sunani died of COVID-19 April 26. “He was under treatment at the COVID-19 hospital in Nuapada. When his health condition deteriorated April 24, the staff advised us to shift him to a hospital with improved facilities, but we could not,” Ashok told this reporter.

He then brought Mangal home to his village of Ulbha in the district’s Komna block where he died two days later. Mangal died at about 9 am. Ashok didn’t get any help from anyone to take the corpse for cremation. It was finally taken by authorities in the afternoon and cremated at Nuapada with COVID-19 protocol.

Ashok, his wife as well as mother Chanchala, also tested positive subsequently. He has not gone for work since two weeks due to being in quarantine.

It has thus become very difficult for him to arrange food. “I am feeling very weak and don’t know how much more time it will take me to feel strong again. Till then, buying food would be difficult,” he said.

Biranchi Rana of Mahulmunda village in the district’s Khariar block was a driver of a private vehicle. He died of COVID-19 May 2 while under treatment at the COVID-19 hospital in Nuapada.

His wife had returned two days back from the same hospital after being hospitalised for COVID-19. She now has to manage herself, her three children and three of Biranchi’s widowed sisters, who also stay with the family.

Tulas Yadav from Mograpali, a neighbourhood in Khariar Road town, died at the COVID-19 hospital March 26. She was living with her two grandchildren.

Her son and daughter-in-law work at a brick kiln near Patna in Bihar. They are yet to return from their work place. The children are now in the care of their relatives.

The local administration is not able to provide for destitute families like those of Sunani and Rana, who were breadwinners. “We don’t have any government provision to support these families,” Sadanand Bhadra, the block development officer of Komna block, said.

Some local organisations like Mukta Bichar Manch (MBM) have come forward to extend support to such destitute households. “MBM, by taking contributions from benevolent people, is providing one month of rations to poor families affected by COVID-19,” Jitendra Pattnaik, an active member of MBM, said.

The daily addition of COVID-19 positive cases has declined a bit but still remains around 30 per cent of those tested. Some 260 of the 900 people who underwent antigen tests May 3, tested positive.

The positivity rate in Nuapada block is the highest in the district — above 51 per cent. “Some 123 people were tested May 3 in the block, 63 of whom were found to be positive” a health official said on the condition of anonymity.

Some 37 of the 52 migrants who returned to the district May 3 tested positive. The block administration had no idea what to do with the positive cases and sent them to their respective villages.

They were forced to bring them back to the temporary medical centre in Badi village of Khariar block, when the news got leaked on social media.

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