BHUBANESWAR : Nine members of Chuktia Bhunjia tribe, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, of Nuapada district have come under the grip of novel coronavirus. Five Covid-19 positive cases have been detected from Salepada village and another from Chhinmundi village, both under Sunabeda panchayat, said micro project head of Chuktia Bhunjia Development Agency Basudev Panda.
Earlier, three positive cases were reported from Cherchuan village of Michhapali gram panchayat. All the infected patients are asymptomatic and doing well. Nuapada Collector Swadha Dev Singh told TNIE that two of the Covid infected persons were kept at the Komna block isolation centre and they were discharged as they did not show any complications.
The micro project under Chuktia Bhunjia Development Agency (CBDA) covers 14 villages under three gram panchayats - Sunabeda, Michhapalli and Soseng - with a population of around 3,800 in 780 households. Mostly illiterate, the villagers are still showing resistance to health check-ups and Covid tests by the district administration.
He said so far 250 people have come forward for rapid antigen test out of which 9 cases have been found to be Covid positive. The actual caseload will be known if all the people volunteered for Covid testing.
The primitive tribe is suspected to have got the infection after their visits to markets in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. The district collector said the administration has launched a massive drive for door to door surveys in the CBDA micro project area.