People of a village in Indore have disallowed entry of outsiders amid coronavirus surge.
People of a village in Indore in Madhya Pradesh have come in for praise for disallowing the entry of outsiders as a measure to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, with videos of a minister and the district collector talking to them at a barrier point going viral on social media.
Dhabli is a village of 7,000 people and is some 15 kilometres from the district headquarters, and the move to barricade it from outsiders started after it reported two to three COVID-19 deaths, officials said on Monday.
State minister Tulsiram Silawat and Indore collector Manish Singh, who were on a COVID-19 review tour, stood at a barrier point to talk out of respect for the villagers' decision to not allow outsiders, they said.
A video of the incident went viral on social media. "After the death of two to three persons here from COVID-19, we set up barriers to stop the entry of outsiders. The youth take turns to man the barrier, as it protects us from COVID-19," Dhabli village head Mahesh Parihar told PTI.
In a tweet, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan praised the hamlet.
"I welcome the citizens of Dhabli of Sanver Janpad who are fighting in a determined manner against COVID-19," he said.
Indore is the state's worst coronavirus-hit district with a caseload of 1,28,459, including 1,212 deaths.