Rlys: Over 21 lakh guest workers have returned to home states

Life is several cities started limping back to normalcy as several states gave a slew of relaxations in the lockdown norms.

According to government’s morning data, there have been 1,01,139 cases and 3,183 deaths in the country. In the last 24 hours, 4,970 new cases and 134 deaths have been reported while 2,350 patients have recovered. The overall recovery number is 39,173. As per PTI, there were 1,01,688 cases in India while Covid19india.org put the overall figure at 1,02,329 and 3,169 deaths till Tuesday evening.

In several states, public and private transport was back on the roads, shops opened and people started going to office after 57 days.

In states that relaxed rules for Lockdown 4, many went for walks in neighborhood parks, while domestic helps and construction workers were back at work. E-commerce was also active, with a surge in online orders for nonessential items. In cities like Delhi, where the Metro is still shut, the roads were crowded with cars and taxis.

With many migrant workers returning home, Covid-19 cases are rising in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand. More migrants are expected to return home in the days ahead.

On Tuesday, the railway ministry said the consent of destination states for migrant trains wasn’t needed any longer. Earlier, the Centre had said the consent of the receiving state was a must for Shramik Specials. The Railways said over 21 lakh people were sent to their home states through 1,595 “Shramik Specials”. A railway official said the state governments were paying for all these trains and no migrant was being asked to pay.

While the total cases have exceeded one lakh in eight weeks, the growth rate of active cases is three per cent, which means the doubling rate is 23 days, said economist Shamika Ravi, who is tracking the Covid-19 graph. She said it was important to understand this rate hadn’t changed in the past three days and a struggle was on to flatten the curve.