In the wake of the coronavirus spreading into villages and various reports on the condition of health facilities in rural and remote areas of the country, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated today that it is ‘committed to fighting COVID in rural and far flung areas’.

“Some twitter users of late had tweeted about the management of COVID-19 in rural settings. Issues raised in these tweets range from lack of testing, isolation and clinical management facilities at village level, overmedication by healthcare workers, scarcity of PPE etc,” the ministry statement read.

Also Read: Leaking roofs, missing doors, weeds everywhere and few staff: Rural health centres in shambles

The statement contested that these tweets themselves mention RT-PCR tests in the the remote areas prove that the government is committed to handling the COVID crisis.

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“The availability of Rapid Antigen Kit and provision for swabbing for RT-PCR test in a primary health center located in a remote interior village in the hills, as brought out in these tweets, is testimony to the commitment of the Government to manage COVID in rural and far-flung areas,” it statement.

Also Read: Uttarakhand faces an uphill task as it tries to reach vaccines to its far flung villages

The ministry also informed that India is presently the second largest manufacturers of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits in the world and has the capacity to manufacture about a million such kits per day.

“PPEs have been made available to the States in excess of their demands. Hence the allegation in these tweeted threads that health workers don’t have requisite PPEs is untenable,” the ministry said.

Gaon Connection has consistently reported on the COVID situation in the rural areas of the country. On May 29, it reported about the dismal state of health centres in rural areas.

Its community journalists visited 11 rural health centres — four PHCs and seven sub-centres (upkendras) —in the villages of Unnao, Barabanki, Shahjahanpur and Sitapur districts. 

These health centres are exceedingly vital for India’s villages as these are the fundamental units of rural health infrastructure where villagers access basic medical facilities.

However, it was found that several of these primary health centres were in dilapidated and deserted conditions. Some had their doors, windows and scanty furniture broken with no staff in sight. Some were locked with overgrown weeds.  Read full report here.