Amid sporadic reports of health workers on the frontlines of the battle against Covid-19 being abused across the country, here’s a spot of good news.

Health workers of the capital were pleasantly surprised when people of ward 25 of Ranchi Municipal Corporation on Sunday performed their aarti and offered them sweets and water.

Even the police personnel accompanying the health workers were given a standing ovation and for their role in serving society at a time of crisis. Ward 25 of Ranchi Municipal Corporation covers a large part of Harmu and shares boundaries with ward 22 covering Hindpiri locality.

Jharkhand’s first case of Covid-19, a young Malaysian woman, was detected from Hindpiri last week.

Later, when health workers went to Hindpiri for screening and testing people, many residents behaved badly with health workers. On Saturday, a former ward councilor of Hindpiri Md Aslam allegedly thrashed a safai (cleanliness) worker of the RMC.

Councilor of ward number 25 Arjun Ram said that he wanted health workers to know they were important and that people appreciated them. He added that he had requested the district administration to carry out screening and health check-ups of residents of his ward that was close to Hindpiri.

“A team of two doctors and 20 nurses and paramedics came to our ward on Sunday. Initially, they were slightly apprehensive because few days ago they had a very bad experience at Hindpiri. When they arrived, they were welcomed by people with smiles. Some of our residents even performed aarti in front of the health workers, others offered them sweets and water. Elderly persons blessed them for doing a very vital job,” said Ram.

Kishore Jha, a resident of Harmu, said he really wanted to show his appreciation to health workers, policemen and safai (cleanliness) workers.

“They are the real warriors. They are risking their life to save us. Their servics must be recognised. As a responsible citizen I cooperated with them and many of us also welcomed them in a traditional way,” said Jha.

On the first day of the health drive at Harmu on Sunday, health employees held door-to-door screening of as many as 106 households. No suspected case was found. The drive will continue, ward councillor Ram said.