Once a hotspot, Jammu and Kashmir's Hirpora village stays COVID-free during second wave

New Delhi: This village in Jammu and Kashmir has been successful in maintaining the tag of COVID-free during the second wave of coronavirus in the country. 

The Hirpora village which was COVID hotspot in the first wave last year, has managed to remain untouched by this deadly virus this year. 

A village in the Kashmir Valley, located 62 km away from Srinagar, has remained free of COVID in the second wave. The reason for this is that the people of this village did not leave everything to the government and fought this battle themselves and secondly, village was first in district to get fully vaccinated.

Remote Village Herpora in Shopian district, which was a covid hot-spot in the first wave of corona in the year 2020. Last year first case of this deadly infection was detected in this village of south Kashmir.  Every second man in village with a population of more than seven thousand got infected and it was then declared a corona hot-spot. 

But today the picture is changed.  There is no one infected in this village, where the whole country has been facing this epidemic. There are two major reasons for this change. One is that the people did not leave everything to the government and learned  from the first wave.  The people followed the SOPs issued Toby government.  The use of masked, sanitising and social distancing has become the practice of this village. The village mosque committee and the elders have played an important role in this.

The second major reason was vaccination.  In the Shopian district, where people above the age of 45 years are all vaccinated for first dose, while the second dose is taken almost by 80 percent people. And soon vaccination for the people of between 18-44 years will start. 

The village sarpanch, Ajaz Ahmad Sheikh, says, “if we talk about the year 2019-2020, the first covid case in Kashmir was from this village, but we learned this time we kept a vigil, we practiced social distancing , used sanitisers, used masks, took safeguarded for our lives here and result is that this village recovered. He added There is no covid  case is here today, this village is clear.  He also appealed “ We appeal to the people of the whole of India that we have to fight against it, we request the people of whole India to protect their lives Wear masks, keep social distancing so that we will  win this covid Fight.

Every person in this village is awakened. A Local citizen Majid says, "We used sanitisers, used masks and kept social distancing so that we were able to survive. We followed whatever was health officials said.”

Another youngster Umayak says, "Vaccination has been done to the entire village. 98% of the people above the age of 45 years have been vaccinated. 

 People fought this battle in this village himself, but the administration also was geared up.  This time, before the second wave, the administration took steps well in advance and vaccinated the entire population.  As a result today, where Corona cases are in all areas in the state, but this village of Hirpora remained untouched by it.  According to health officials, the people of this village cooperated fully. 

The area's immunization officer Gulzar Ahmad Baba says, "Herpora village which was hot-spot in 2020 there were very high number of cases but our team went there today. It is covid free. The whole village is fully vaccinated. The people of Heerpora are following SOP,”

Today this village has become an inspiration not only for Kashmir but also for the whole country, people should learn from this that everything is not to be done by the government, but common people also have some responsibilities. After learning about this village It would not wrong to say that precaution is better than cure.

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