To increase oxygen level, the person put a cot on the peepal tree, people do yoga below

Agra: The threat of Covid-19 may have receded slightly in Agra with the peak of the pandemic having passed, but the rural areas of the district are still struggling with proper access to good medical facilities.

In such circumstances, local ingenuity has supplemented the limited medical facilities in these villages. While papaya leaves are in great demand to treat fever, villagers are also spending their days performing yoga under pipal trees.

India Today came across several such yoga enthusiasts on a visit to the Naubri village in the Baroli Ahir block of Agra. These villagers insisted that they felt rejuvenated as beneath the pipal tree, the air was enriched with oxygen.

Is there any truth to this? A senior health department officer said that when these villagers were tested, their dissolved oxygen level in blood was found to be between 94-95.

Village pradhan Snehlata told India Today that the panchayat has formed a makeshift hospital under the pipal trees as the public was not too keen to seek medical aid from the health department or district administration. Sanitisation process has been initiated in the village and home quarantine protocols are being implemented.

Community health centre, Baroli Ahir, superintendent Dr Ajay Vikram said that the health department is conducting Covid-19 tests in these hamlets. Medicines are being distributed to the villagers and efforts are being made to treat them in the village itself, unless the case demands shifting them to the city. Village elders have been requested to ensure that home isolation protocols are followed by Covid-positive patients.