550 districts in India have Covid-19 cases; many in rural areas
nNEWDELHI: Even as India relaxed restrictions for the next phase of the lockdown, two separate, but related, data points point to a new challenge in India’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
On May 17, 550 of India’s 736 districts had Covid-19 cases, an addition of around 180 districts in the last fortnight, according to data compiled from states.
Among the states, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh witnessed the maximum increase in number of districts affected since May 1. What explains the spikes? Government officials largely attribute the increase to the return of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to rural areas in these states, with weak health infrastructure. Since May 1, the Centre started special Shramik trains, even as thousands of others continue to walk hundreds of kilometres to their villages.
As of Saturday, rural districts accounted for only 21% of total number of cases in India but the numbers are increasing. Officials said in many of these, Covid-19 cases are in single digits and the infected have been isolated. The exceptions were districts such as Ganjam in Odisha, which has 292 cases, and Munger in Bihar, which reported 195 cases.
However, state government officials are worried that many of the migrants, who have returned, are asymptomatic. “Only about 20% of the workers have returned and all the districts in my state are infected,” said a senior bureaucrat in Bihar. “Imagine the scene when even half of the workers come back. It would be a daunting task.”
A Jharkhand government official said about 80,000 of the 650,000 registered with the state have returned. In Odisha, 110,000 of the 700,000 workers registered have returned, officials said.
All 36 districts in Bihar; twothird of 30 districts in Odisha; 80% of 55 districts in Madhya Pradesh; more than half of Jharkhand’s 24, Rajasthan’s 33 and one-third of Chhattisgarh’s 28 districts already have Covid-19 patients.
There have been several incidents of migrants jumping from quarantine in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, though most were brought back. Workers in Bihar and Odisha have complained of poor facilities in government centers, a charge denied by authorities.
Most of the Covid-19 free districts in these states are the remote tribal and poorest districts of India, where not enough tests have been done.“as ICMR has said that only symptomatic persons should be tested, we have not tested many from some of the tribal districts,” said a Jharkhand government official.
Officials in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha said that there was no possibility of easing of lockdown norms from May 18.
Apart from states receiving migrant workers, Covid-19 has also spread to new districts in Tamil Nadu (all 38), Haryana (all 22) and Karnataka (23 of 30).
On Saturday, the Centre asked officials from 30 municipal areas spread across 12 states, which contribute 79% of India’s Covid-19 cases, to maintain high vigil and closely monitor areas of old cities, slums, migrant camps and other high-density pockets.
These areas are in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal and UP. The selected municipal areas are Brihanmumbai or Greater Mumbai, Greater Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thane, Delhi, Indore, Pune, Kolkata, Jaipur, Nashik, Jodhpur, Agra, Tiruvallur, Aurangabad, Cuddalore, Greater Hyderabad, Surat, Chengalpattu, Ariyalur, Howrah, Kurnool, Bhopal, Amritsar, Villupuram, Vadodara, Udaipur, Palghar, Berhampur, Solapur and Meerut.
NEW DELHI: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Sunday asked political parties not to try and gain mileage from the plight of migrant workers striving to get back home, attacking former Congress president Rahul Gandhi for engaging in “theatrics” over the issue, eliciting a sharp reaction from the opposition.
Sitharaman’s comments at a press briefing came in the context of Gandhi’s interaction with a group migrant workers on Saturday.
“They are adding to misery of migrant labourers who are walking on their foot to their home, by stopping them and talking,” the finance minister said. “They are calling us dramabaaz (engaging in theatrical posturing). What happened yesterday by stopping migrants and wasting their time? Aren’t they dramabaaz?”
The minister said Congress president Sonia Gandhi should have asked her party chief ministers to help the migrants.
The Congress soon hit back. “We expect certain degree of seriousness and gravitas when the finance minister is addressing the press. Her statement is frivolous and the Congress president did not need to learn from her,” senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra urged Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to allow her party to ferry migrant labourers back home in buses arranged by it and kept ready at the state border. She made the appeal in a video posted on Twitter.