Not just at grocery stores or vegetable markets, they are observing social distancing even at burial ground and during cremation.
Residents of Thirumalayapalem in Khammam district, nearly 180 km from State capital, are setting an example in checking COVID-19 by adhering to social distancing principle during grief and loss. Like many other villages and communities in the State that voluntarily barricaded main and internal roads to ensure people don’t move around idly spurting incidence of coronavirus, Thirumalayapalem villagers also swung into action.
They didn’t stop at blocking roads barring entry of others into their village, which is the mandal headquarters with close to 5,500 population. Realising that even a small gathering of five persons too would help coronavirus unleash terror, the villagers decided that there should not be any crowds even during mourning.
S. Ravi, a businessman from the village died in a road accident three days ago. Thirumalayapalem sarpanch Kondabala Venkatesh said that when the body was taken out in procession from the house, they ensured minimum number of villagers participated in the procession. “We convinced everyone to observe social distancing while taking out the body to the graveyard,” he said.
Swallowing grief, they showed similar commitment when an octogenarian Alla Varamma passed away on Monday. She died around 5 p.m. In the next two hours, they completed the cremation, not giving scope for assembling of a large number of villagers.
“It is difficult to convince people not to gather in large numbers when a person dies, but we should check coronavirus,” said the sarpanch.
