Many in Telangana might have never heard of Chegur village, leave alone visiting it. Many in Chegur village might have never visited Bharatamma’s tiny kirana store in a poor locality.
On April 1, the 55-year-old died of COVID-19. Not just she, even her family members do not have any travel history. According to locals, no one in this village has gone abroad or returned in the recent months.
The population of the village is around 2,600. The death has puzzled the local administration who laid siege to Chegur and four villages around it to find out the source. But the immediate concern was contact tracing. Bharatamma, her husband and son used to take turns to manage their store where people from neighbourhood came to purchase essential items.
The challenge for health officials was, of course, to find out who visited her store. But Bharatamma's movements in the last few days posed more threat to public health. It is learnt that after she fell sick on March 29, she was taken to an RMP doctor in a neighbouring village. In the next two days, she visited another government hospital in Mahaboobnagar town, 100 km away from Hyderabad. As her health deteriorated, she was taken to Osmania government hospital in Hyderabad where her samples were taken to test for COVID-19.
Bharatamma died in the afternoon of April 1. Her body was taken back to the village without following any protocols as the test result was not out yet. Next day, she was buried as per the usual customs. According to village sarpanch, Vittal, around 50 people, including him, were present at her funeral.
“I tried giving masks to people and told them to maintain distance from each other. At that time, we only knew that she died of ill-health and we could never even imagine she had coronavirus infection,” he said.
In the following days, the results surprised the local officials as well as the villagers. Almost four villages, including Chegur, were completely shut with entry and exit points sealed. All the villagers were asked to be in home quarantine. The officials identified her family members who were close to her when she was unwell and also those who were part of the funeral. They are being screened and tested.
Meanwhile, police suspect that three people from Bihar could have passed on the infection to the deceased. The three migrants, who work in a high-profile Ashram managed by a popular spiritual organisation, have been staying in her property for the last few days on rent. They, along with hundreds of others, work inside the Ashram which is located a few kilometres away from the village. The son of the deceased was also working there until he quit recently. According to locals, many of those who work inside the Ashram take up accommodation outside. That is how these three ended up in the house of Bharatamma.
According to Cyberabad Police, the three migrant workers travelled to Uttarakhand and came back on March 18 in Sampark Kranti train. “The train they travelled in had many passengers who visited Nizamuddin mosque in Delhi. They might have contracted the virus from them. We found out that there was a positive patient in the same train from Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh,” said V.C. Sajjanar, Cyberabad police Commissioner.
According to authorities, their probe showed that the Ashram was shut by March 15 and the workers did not visit the Ashram after they returned from Uttarakhand. Now, the entire case rests on whether the Bihari workers would test positive to COVID-19 or not. Their test results are awaited.
The incident shook the local villagers and some of them have raised concerns that the infection might have spread from the Ashram which attracts a number of locals and foreigners.
“We are now scared to go out. Our demand is that everyone in the villages around us and also those inside the Ashram should be screened. There are around 500 people staying there, many of who travel frequently. Many from the Ashram venture into the villages and many from these villages work there. We still do not know how this lady got coronavirus. We just want to be safe,” said B. Ashok, Chairman of Cooperative Society of Venkammaguda village, located close to Chegur.
