Over 50 per cent population of Aabanali village in Karnataka's Belgavi tests positive for COVID-19

Belgavi, Apr 22: In what comes as a shocking revelation, over half of the population of a village in Belgavi district of Karnataka has been found positive for the novel coronavirus. The development took place in Aabanali village under Khanapur taluk of the district.

According to reports, district officials will once again conduct RT-PCR tests to confirm the COVID infection.

On Tuesday, of the 300 people in the village, at least 144 people took rapid antigen test and turned out to be positive.

The report suggested that most of the villagers who worked as daily wage labourers recently returned from Maharashtra following COVID restrictions to curb the rise in cases.

The village has been sealed by officials. "We will soon conduct RT-PCR test to confirm the infection. The villagers may have contracted the infection in Maharashtra," the report quoted Shashikanth Muniyal, District Heath Officer.

It can be seen that people from the village frequently travel to Goa and Maharashtra and return home in the absence of strict health checks at the border.

Earlier, few villagers visited the village health centre and complained of fever and body ache. After this, the officials conducted tested more villagers and found 144 people positive.

According to a villager named Marithi, villagers came to know about infection when three people were tested on April 10. Marithi alleged there was no contact tracing exercise from health officials and people roamed across the village. After this, a large number of people started complaining about COVID-like symptoms.