With hospital 8 hours away, Covid centre set up at remote HP village

Sheep carding centre converted into transit Covid care centre in one of the remotest tribal regions of Dodra Kwar in Himachal Pradesh

To check the spread of coronavirus in the tribal regions of Himachal Pradesh, particularly areas bordering Uttarakhand in Shimla and Sirmaur districts, the civil administration has set up a 10-bed Covid care centre at Kwar village.

Health workers at the transit Covid care centre in the remote Kwar village near Rohru in Shimla district on Saturday. (HT Photo)

The transit Covid care centre will cater to patients from the remote panchayats of Dodra, Kwar, Jiskun, Pandhar and Dhandwarhi, which has a population of about 7,500. Locked away in the Himalayas, Dodra Kwar is one of the remotest inhabited pockets of the state that was connected by road only in 2013.The nearest hospital at Rohru is an eight-hour drive away due to the poor condition of roads in the region. Dodra and Kwar are two villages on the opposite sides of the valley separated by the Rupin river that merges into the Tons river.

“Cases are on the rise and it’s not possible for all patients to travel to the nearest hospital at Rohru so we decided to set up the Covid care centre in the village itself,” says Rohru sub divisional magistrate BR Sharma, who holds the additional charge of the Dodra Kwar SDM.

“We have set up the centre in a government building that was earlier being used as a sheep carding centre,” said Sharma, adding that the centre has two wards. At present, it has three patients, while there are 42 active cases in the remote region.

Health teams deputed for vaccination

The health department has deputed five teams to vaccinate those above 44 years in the villages of the region. The department has also stationed an ambulance at Kwar village to ferry critical patients to the civil hospital at Rohru.

The civil hospital at Rohru has despatched 10 oxygen cylinders for the Covid care facility.

“Local residents have been a big help. We had only 25 regulators for the cylinders but were helped by individuals and associations,” says Rohru civil hospital medical superintendent Dr Ravinder Mukhiya.

The civil hospital can accommodate 70 patients though 54 patients are undergoing treatment at present.

Local contractor Jai Chauhan, who travelled all the way to the industrial belt of Baddi to buy the regulators for the oxygen cylinder, says “The local truck operators’ union was a big help.”

The hospital is now equipped with 90 oxygen cylinders.