651 new cases of coronavirus have been detected in the state of Bihar among thousands of migrant laborers who have returned to their native places till Monday. As per estimates, 8% of 8,337 results that have come in so far from the initial lot of 11,800 samples that were taken randomly from 7.4 lakh returnees.
As per a Times of India report, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ordered the health department to raise testing by 1000 per day. Till now Seven government medical institutions are testing an average of 2,000 samples per day collectively.
Similar pattern in Jharkhand
The same pattern has been reported in neighbouring state Jharkhand. The bulk of new cases emerging in the state are of the migrant labourers.
The Hazaribagh area was about to be declared as Green zone but hours later a migrant returnee was detected as coronavirus positive. 22 more cases were reported in the same area in a span of a week.
In the Garhwa district of Jharkhand was about to be listed as an Orange zone till May 8. In a single night, 20 people had tested positive. All of them were migrant workers who had arrived from other states.
Principal Health Secretary of Jharkhand Dr Nitin Madan Kulkarni said, “With thousands still returning home every day, we do not have the infrastructure to put all of them in institutional quarantine.”
As per reports, the majority of the migrant workers came back from the Red zones of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Karnataka. The country’s first Shramik special trains brought migrant workers from Hyderabad to Ranchi on May 1. More than 62000 had returned by 52 special trains till 17 May. Another 30000 arrived by bus from the neighbouring states.
