550 districts in India have Covid-19 cases

NEWDELHI: 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; two-third 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.