The woman had returned recently from Kolkata to Bhitarkanika National Park
A 65-year-old woman, who was displaying novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) symptoms after returning to her remote village in Odisha from Kolkata, died recently, allegedly while being treated by a quack.
Patra died on April 18, 2020, more than a month after returning to her village of Rajendranarayanpur within Odisha’s Bhitarkanika National Park.
Officials came to know of the matter on April 22, after some locals disclosed it to them.
A medical team rushed to the village on the same day and collected a swab sample of the husband of the deceased and sent it to the SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack for testing.
“We will take legal action against the village quack, Manu Maiti, who was illegally treating the deceased in the village since April 13 after she developed cold, fever and breathing problems. She was also suffering from asthma,” MB Baig, the additional district medical officer, Kendrapara, said.
The deceased and her husband had returned from Kolkata in an ambulance to their village on March 13 and were in home quarantine, Baig added.
The Odisha government has raised concerns over people returning to the state from West Bengal. This, after it came to light that 24 out of 74 COVID-19 cases in Odisha had a travel history to West Bengal, or had come in contact with someone who had returned from the state.
Of late, many quacks and fake medicine shop owners have been minting money on the pretext of providing medical help to the gullible villagers of the coastal district of Kendrapada.
Two years ago, a village quack was arrested in Balikana village after a 13-year-old boy died under his treatment, Biraja Pati, a social worker of the district, said.
“The healthcare system in the remote coastal pockets is falling like ninepins due to shortage of medical personnel, poor transport facilities and infrastructural inadequacies,” Pati said.
“As a result, large numbers of people are forced to seek immediate medical help from quacks that further puts them at risk. The distance and lack of transportation from the remote villages often prevent pregnant women from reaching the health centres, particularly in instances of sudden onset of labour,” Pati added.
The arrival of large numbers of migrant workers to their villages in Kendrapara district and its nearby areas from various other states and abroad has left many locals worried.
Officials must screen all the workers who arrived at their villages to check the spread of the COVID- 19, Jagajiban Das, a trade union leader, said. “They live in small houses at their workplaces, with poor sanitation and limited access to potable water and have limited access to healthcare. If the coronavirus reaches them, it would be disastrous,” he added.
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