Highlights
- UP sees rising cases of COVID-19 in migrants who returned
- 50 migrants who returned home found infected in UP's Basti
- "We will break chain the chain": District Magistrate
Uttar Pradesh is seeing increasing cases of coronavirus among migrant workers who have just returned home. Fifty migrants who have returned home were found infected with coronavirus in UP's Basti district, 190 km from state capital Lucknow, taking the total in the district to 104. A top district official said 28 have recovered.
"All are migrant labourers who came recently to Basti," district magistrate Ashutosh Niranjan said in statement.
"No need for public to panic. As a matter of understanding high numbers simply indicate that high rate of sampling and meticulous contact tracing exercise undertaken in Basti is helping us to identify coronavirus carriers. Their timely identification is surely helping us in breaking chain of coronavirus transmission in the district," Mr Niranjan said.
The migrants returned to Basti from Maharashtra last week, news agency Press Trust of India reported. "We are finding out about the places where they went back in Maharashtra," Mr Niranjan said, adding the 50 infected people have been taken to a COVID-19 care centre and their contact history will be traced.
Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said a large number migrant workers who have returned to the state have indeed tested positive for coronavirus.
"A large number of cases of infection is being observed in migrant workers returning to the state. They are being screened at shelter homes in districts. If they show no symptoms, they are sent to home quarantine for 21 days. If they show symptoms, their medical examination is being conducted," Mr Prasad told reporters, news agency ANI reported.
"It is very important for village and mohalla monitoring committees to control infection spread. They should ensure home quarantine for those coming from outside, then we will be able to control transmission. The positive rate among migrants returning to UP is 22.2 per cent while the overall rate of the state 2.6 per cent," Mr Prasad said.
The UP government on Monday agreed to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's request to allow the Congress to run 1,000 buses for migrants. In a letter, the government asked the Congress leader's office to send details of the buses.
The political fight continued as the UP government said autos, two-wheelers and goods carriers were among the list of buses that Congress sent. A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against Ms Vadra's secretary and UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu for giving wrong details in the list of buses, the UP government said.