In rural India, fear of testing and vaccines hampers Covid-19 fight

Volunteers of a non-governmental organisation organisation distribute food to people in need during a lockdown imposed in Tamil Nadu state to contain the Spread of Covid-19 coronavirus in Chennai

When health worker Neelam Kumari knocks on doors in Indian villages the occupants sometimes run out the back, terrified that she wants to vaccinate them against Covid-19. With India's devastating recent virus surge easing in cities, the deadly pandemic is ravaging the vast poverty-stricken rural hinterland. But here, ignorance and fear rule. ‘A lot of people in my village don't want to take the vaccine. They fear that they will die if they take it,’ Kumari told AFP in Dhatrath, a collection of two-storey buildings in Haryana state with buffaloes wandering the streets. ‘One of the villagers was so angry that he beat up a (health) worker who was trying to convince him to take the vaccine.’