Locals attack and spit at Health Workers for collecting swab samples in Kerala's Poonthura, commandos deployed

In a shocking attack on the frontline workers in Kerala, locals of the fishing suburb of Poonthura near Thiruvananthapuram attacked a team of health workers, including a doctor, who had gone to collect swab samples after it was suspected that the area has become a ‘super-spreader’ in the state of Kerala.

The team had gone in a car and were forced by the agitating local people to lower the car window and they allegedly spat on those inside the vehicle, sources from the Indian Medical Association(IMA) said.

Hundreds of men and women had come out of their homes at Poonthura this morning protesting that they were facing isolation from various quarters due to media reports on a rising number of positive cases from the area. The locals were protesting alleging that they were being isolated as doctors of certain hospitals had refused to treat them.

All the four health workers have been asked to go into quarantine, IMA sources told PTI.

Notably, earlier this week, Kerala confirmed its first COVID-19 ‘super spreader’-a fisherman from Poonthura. After this, the state government imposed severe restrictions in the village at a time when Thiruvanathapuram is already under ‘triple lockdown’ since July 6.

As per a report, the Poonthura area in Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram is now been guarded by the Commandos of Special Armed Police (SAP) after the fishing village emerged as a COVID hotspot. 25 Commandos of SAP have been deployed in Poonthura to enforce lockdown guidelines, as the area has seen over 100 people getting infected in the last one week. “Coast Guard, Coastal Security, and Marine Enforcement also put on guard here to prevent fishing boats going out to or returning from Tamil Nadu.

Blaming the opposition parties, Vijayan said "Our health workers are in the battlefield consciously knowing that they can get affected anytime and are fighting the spread of the pandemic.

They were prevented from entering the place. Some people are making the locals do the same.We can see the hands of the Opposition parties behind this," he told reporters.