As migrants return, states to increase testing capacity
BACK HOME Odisha will increase capacity fourfold, Bihar to initiate pool testing
nBHUBANESHWAR/PATNA/RANCHI: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday ordered the health department to increase the state’s capacity to conduct Covid-19 tests by more than fourfold and Bihar decided to conduct pool testing of its returning workers as the two states reported an increase in the number of coronavirus cases.
A majority of around 10 million migrant workers have either returned or would be heading back to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh in the next few days.
Patnaik on Tuesday directed health officials to increase the per-day Covid-19 testing capacity of Odisha to 15,000 from 3,500 now as more migrant workers tested positive after their return to Odisha.
Until Tuesday evening, Odisha had reported 175 positive cases; at present, the state is testing 102 samples per 100,000 population compared to 240 per 100,000 in Andhra Pradesh. Still, its performance dwarfs that of West Bengal , which is testing just 25 persons per 100,000 population.
Patnaik asked his officials to ramp up testing facilities in Baripada, Balasore, Koraput and Bolangir districts, from where the most number of new cases have been reported. A large number of the returning migrant workers would need to be tested to prevent the further spread of
Covid-19 .
On Tuesday, the Bihar government said migrants who returned accounted for 65 Covid cases, taking the total number to 535 across 32 of the state’s 38 districts. So far, four Covid relateddeaths have been reported in Bihar. Only seven new cases were reported on Tuesday, tweeted Bihar’s principal secretary (health) Sanjay Kumar.
“Going by our experience over the past 10 days, almost 60% to 70% of the tested samples, which came positive, were of people who came from outside the state,” Kumar said.
Bihar health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh on Tuesday said the 65 cases among migrant workers were spread across 21 districts of Bihar; he said the government had decided to conduct pool testing.
Pooling of samples involves testing them in batches and when pooled sample tests positive, individual samples are assessed. This method reduces the number of test kits used, compared to testing individual samples.
On Tuesday, officials said that close to 20,000 migrants and students had arrived in Bihar in special trains and many more were expected to reach in the next few days. The Bihar government has decided on a mandatory 21-day quarantine for the returnees.
There were reports of 25 migrants workers running away from a government-run quarantine centre in Katihar district because the facilities were inadequate. “We are human beings and we can’t be held responsible for the spread of Covid-19,” said one of the migrants in the Katihar camp, demanding home quarantine.. Similar complaints were also reported from other districts.
In Jharkhand, a large number of migrants who returned claimed that they had not received the Rs 1,000 promised by the state government and had to pay their own railway fare. Vikash Kumar Singh, 28, a worker in a hotel in Karnataka’s Devanahalli, borrowed Rs 900 to pay for his journey to Ranch. He said he had neither received the March salary from his employer nor the Rs 1,000 promised by the Jharkhand government to migrant workers stranded outside the state.
“We slept on an empty stomach for several nights. Then I came to know that Jharkhand government is giving Rs 1,000 assistance through an app. I also registered myself with the Jharkhand chief minister’s special assistance scheme app. But I have not received any money till date,” Singh said.
Director of information and public relations Rajiv Lochan Bakshi said, “The migrant workers who have registered themselves with the assistance scheme app by April 29 will receive the amount of Rs 1,000, whether they have returned to Jharkhand or still are stranded outside.”
According to a government statement, around 306,000 people have registered themselves on the app..
nNEW DELHI: A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked all state units to pay the train fare of stranded migrant workers who are headed home, the party Tuesday extended the offer to students and pilgrims.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, wrote to the party’s state units, on this. They were told to make sure such people aren’t required to pay the one-way fare if they cannot afford to do so.
Pradesh Congress Committees will form advisory committees to frame guidelines and oversee implementation of the initiative, including outreach, identification and reimbursement of beneficiaries besides coordinating with officers appointed by state governments.
Through another circular, Venugopal also directed the state units to establish help desks to enable the stranded migrant workers to approach them.
The state units were also directed to deploy teams at each railway station to coordinate the departure of migrant workers and make payments to the railway authorities. In another move, the Congress sought voluntary contributions from the public to meet the travel expenses of migrant labourers.
Gandhi’s announcement on Monday that her party would bear the cost of travel of migrant workers who, the Congress alleged were being forced to pay the train fare, triggered a war of words with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which said the railways was paying 85% and states the remainder.
Gandhi Tuesday called a meeting of the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states and senior leaders on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the pandemic and the economy.
Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said it was unfortunate that the Centre and the states were charging stranded migrant workers for ferrying them home and also offered to pay for their travel.