Villagers near Trivandrum attack & forcibly cough on medical team; Kerala CM blames Oppn

A shocking incident h come to light from Kerala in which a medical team was attacked by villrs.  medical team h visited a coastal vill named Poonthura in Thiruvananthapuram district for COVID-19 swab collection on Friday during which it got surrounded by villrs who attacked car and manhandled team.  agitated villrs allegedly abused and 'coughed' on team. To d to horror, villrs forced team to lower ir vehicle's window and spat on m.

Dr Dyuthi Haripras who led team h got her medical licence just ten days back and was working in Valiyathura coastal speciality hospital as part of three months of compulsory rural service. Recalling horrifying experience at Poonthura coastal vill she said, "Villrs were shouting, hitting on our car. y asked driver to lower windows. We tried to convince people that we were a health team which h come for a swab collection. y removed ir mask and forced ir hes into car and coughed at us".

"We were six people in car, a staff nurse, a nursing assistant, lab technician, a driver, a staff nurse and I. gate of Ayush hospital seemed closed when we arrived re. Suddenly a group of about 60 to 70 members both men and women surrounded our vehicle and began shouting at us and, hitting our car. Some people hurled abuses at us," doctor ded.

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medical team's vehicle was surrounded by protestors. doctor instructed driver t to open window, but since vehicle was t able to move ahe, driver rolled down window with an intention of pacifying protestors. However, protestors stuck ir he inside and coughed at team saying, "if we have COVID, you should have too", doctor said.

"Later, some people in crowd ticed that most of us were women and some of us were crying, hence y decided to let us go and released us," she ded.

Poonthura, a densely populated coastal vill in Thiruvananthapuram city limit, is one of coronavirus hotspots in Kerala.  Reports stated that residents from coastal vill were agitated and protested alleging that y were facing isolation from society due to a high number of cases in vill. Commandos and large numbers of police officials were deployed in Poonthura area to control situation and block people's movement amid triple lockdown that was imposed by state government in Thiruvananthapuram corporation area in wake of surge in infections.

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Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his media briefing has blamed Opposition for incident. He said that workers of Opposition United Democratic Front were responsible. Also, he mentioned a Youth Congress leer campaigned through WhatsApp against antigen tests, saying test was useless and would spre virus. Vijayan also ded that Congress leer also claimed that test was just to create fear among people and due to enmity towards Poonthura natives. Vijayan has warned of strong action against those who spre fake news.

(With ANI inputs)