In both the waves of the corona, the island villagers of Irukkam and Vadakodi have been observed to have made a record of zero COVID cases. This comes as a surprise to the rest of the country as they still grapple with the virus. In Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, there are two villages, Irukkam and Vadakodi, on the island southwest of the Satish Dhawan Space Center, an ISRO-controlled rocket launch site.
Located in the middle of Pazhaverkadu, the island covers an area of 11,659 acres in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The island is home to 2,500 people from 700 families. Despite being an island in Andhra Pradesh, their mother tongue is Tamil. The majority of people of Vadakodi depend on fishing and the rest of the people depend on agriculture. It is customary for them to go to Aarambakkam and Sunnambukulam in Tamil Nadu by a two-hour boat ride for basic necessities.
Since Irukkam Island is a sandy area, there are no vehicles including bikes and cars. So, the people there walk wherever they go into the island. Their diet consists mostly of seafood.
In light of all of this, it is still a matter of shock that those on the island were not affected by the corona infection. Beyond that, it is a fact that during the pandemic, the island remained an island that was unreachable by the COVID virus. During the coronavirus outbreak, no outsiders entered the island. Neither did the people living on the island go out. It is this barrier that has saved them from the coronavirus infection.
Some of the islanders live in the Aarambakkam and Sunnambumedu area. These people sent necessities by means of boats to those on the island, ensuring that they never left the island. Katroth Revathi, the Government Medical Officer for Irukkam Island expressed her shock towards the same, and said, “to date, we have conducted a corona test on 150 people to find out if there is an infection among the population living in and around the North. Not a single person was infected.”
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