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An outbreak in the Covid-19 cases in Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan and Jharkhand since May 1,It has been linked to migrant workers who have returned from various cities across the country, state officials said, confirming fear that rural India is no longer safe from the coronavirus pandemic that has affected 62,750 people nationwide until the moment. This understanding has also caused panic among health experts, as so far nearly 80% of reported cases have been seen in urban areas, where the infrastructure needed to treat a pandemic victim is better.
Since a national blockade was announced starting on March 25, migrant workers across the country have started walking and cycling back to their home states, even as states like Delhi deployed buses to transport some of them to their homes. Last week, the Indian Railway began operating special trains for migrants separated from their families because of the blockade and stranded without any income. However, as they have begun to reach their home states and are being placed in quarantine centers, governments are grappling with the ramifications of the pandemic that reaches rural areas.
According to the trade union health ministry, across India there is a deficit of primary care centers and community health centers at 22% and 30%, respectively. The largest deficit occurs in states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, by the way, most migrant workers who travel across the country to work in factories and other industries, like construction, hail. of these six states.
“Although Asha workers in rural areas control health, there is no quality infrastructure to deal with a pandemic like the coronavirus. About half of the health personnel positions in rural India are vacant, ”said Amulya Nidhi, a member of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a network of non-governmental organizations working in the area of public health.
New cases related to migrants
Bihar, where 70% of new cases since May 1 have been detected in migrant workers, has not yet revealed where they have returned from. But Jharkhand and Odisha, who have seen a similar outbreak in the cases, have revealed that information. So far, Surat, a textile center in Gujarat that has the second highest number of Covid cases in the state after Ahmedabad, has become one of the largest Covid-19 centers for migrant workers.
In Jharkhand, a third of the 154 positive cases spread across 13 districts have been reported last week, when migrant workers began arriving in their home state.. According to the state health department bulletin released on Saturday morning, 20 confirmed cases were found in the Garhwa district and two cases were detected in the Koderma district. “The 20 migrant workers, aged between 18 and 40 years, had arrived in Garhwa on May 5. They were among 51 passengers who arrived on a bus from Surat. All are in quarantine, “said district subdivisional officer Kamleshwar Narayan. The quarantine center is a prison under construction. It currently houses 158 migrants, most of whom have returned from Surat, Narayan said.” The results of the samples collected from May 6 to 7 have not yet arrived, “he said, indicating that these numbers could increase.
While Covid-19 positive migrant workers were rushed to a dedicated hospital in the district, Koderma was reverted to an orange zone after two workers who arrived from Surat and Varanasi tested positive.
The 100 new cases of Covid-19 reported in the past 24 hours in the Odisha coastal district of Ganjam are returned from Surat, Ganjam district collector Vijay Aamrita Kulange said. At other Covid-19 hot spots like Jajpur, Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Bhadrak and Rourkela, most of those who tested positive in the past two weeks are migrant workers who have returned from Surat.
In Bihar, 100 workers tested positive on Saturday bringing the total number of cases to 589. “According to our experience in the last 10 days, almost 60% to 70% of the samples tested positive were from people who came from outside the country. country. state, ”said Bihar’s chief (health) secretary, Sanjay Kumar. That is already 224 new cases.
Health Secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh said migrant workers housed in quarantine centers in Khagaria, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur and Begusarai have so far tested positive.
As the number of cases increases, state governments have decided to extend the quarantine period for returnees to 28 days. “Returnees from other states will have to undergo a 21-day institutional quarantine, followed by a home quarantine for the next 7 days,” Subroto Bagchi, Odisha’s chief spokesman, said of the state’s pandemic efforts.
On Saturday, Kulange said, Section 144 was enforced around all of Covid-19’s temporary medical camps / institutional quarantine centers where migrants were quarantined after reports emerged that the people had violated the lockdown rules. At a quarantine center in the Sergarh block, where 80 migrant workers who recently returned from Surat are housed, family members were seen delivering food and betel nuts in violation of social distancing rules. The DM has issued orders that no one be allowed to enter within a 100 meter radius of these centers.
Numbersis expected to swell
On Saturday, five special trains carrying migrants from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu left for Odisha. They are expected to arrive on Sunday. So far, some 46,000 migrant workers have returned to Odisha, and another 500,000 migrants are expected to arrive the following week.
Since May 2, 78,706 migrant workers have reached their home state in Bihar via 69 special trains. Twelve trains carrying 14,245 migrant workers arrived in Bihar on Saturday; 14 more, with 17,054 workers, are in line for Sunday, said Anupam Kumar, secretary, department of information and public relations.
Officials in Rajasthan also said that most of the new cases were reported in the border districts of Gujarat, from where migrant workers have returned. Since Friday, the government has sealed its border with Gujarat and other states.
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