India: This Bihar village has no COVID-19 cases so far

Patna: Even as Bihar is in the grip of the third COVID-19 wave, a village in the state, however, has managed to stave off the pandemic since it began in early 2020, reporting zero cases so far.

The secret behind their immunity is that the village developed its own model to fight the deadly COVID-19 which has claimed more than 12,100 lives across the state so far.

The fascinating story about Sahapur village tucked away in Gaya district of Bihar came to light following a health survey conducted by Society for Empowerment, a non-profit organization headed by a prominent anthropologist. The report was released only on Tuesday evening.

What is worth noting is that the literacy rate of village, dominated by backward and Dalit villagers, is only 52.9 per cent. The female literacy rate is even as low as 24.7 per cent yet the villagers have displayed rare alertness in warding off the viral infections.

According to the survey, the villagers fought the COVID-19 waves by relying on indigenous therapy and through their nature-friendly lifestyle. The survey said that the villagers strictly adopted the traditional ways, such as washing their hands with natural sanitizers prepared by boiling Neem leaves in water, chewing Jethimadh (Liquorice root) and sipping herbal tea prepared by boiling Tulsi leaves (Ocimum tenuiflorum, commonly known as holy basil or Tulsi) at regular intervals.

“There was not a single case reported from the village till date as the villagers have developed its own model. This is amazing given the way neighbouring villages and the other parts of the state continue battling the deadly virus,” project director S Narayan said. According to him, instead of displaying any panic, the villagers turned to traditional methods and strictly followed them.

“They [villagers] are following the same till today now with the third wave that has hit the state,” said Narayan, who is currently an adviser to the federal government in India.

Narayan said the lifestyle, ecology and the environmental conditions also helped the villagers in defending them from COVID-19.

According to the survey, the poor financial condition of the villagers also proved to be a blessing in disguise in tackling the deadly virus. “The poor financial condition largely restricted the movements of the villagers as they didn’t visit the nearby markets to buy items of daily use,” said Narayan who earlier worked with Patna’s AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies.

The initiative indeed becomes significant the way the third wave of the COVID-19 has been spreading fast across the state, leaving around 30,000 villagers infected in the past 10 days itself which has prompted the state government to enforce severe restrictions to check spread of infection. The prevailing situation could be underlined from the fact that the transmissibility rate of Bihar has now jumped to over three per cent from earlier 0.37 per cent while in the case of Patna, it is more than 20 per cent! But Sahapur remains secure till date!