Odisha district turns hot spot with 210 infections in 12 days
STEADY SURGE Ganjam reports 52 new cases on Wednesday, all among migrant workers
On May 2, Odisha’s Ganjam reported its first case of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) with an 18-year-old migrant worker testing positive for the infection. He was part of a 69-member group that came back from Gujarat’s Surat after the resumption of bus services for stranded labourers stuck in different parts of the country due to the lockdown. Six of the teenager’s co-passengers, too. caught the infection. Since then, the district has been reporting a steady surge in cases.
It now has the most cases (210) among all districts in Odisha, which has a total of 538 cases and three fatalities. On Wednesday, Ganjam recorded 52 cases (all migrant workers), the highest in the coastal state. According to the state health and family welfare department, migrant workers returning from Gujarat and West Bengal accounted for 92 of the 101 new cases in the state. These people were housed in quarantine shelters after their return.
“Migrants from Surat, a Covid-19 hot spot, have been the biggest source of the infection in Odisha, followed by migrants from West Bengal...of the 538 cases total, nearly 300 are Surat returnees, while another 150 are those who returned from Bentill gal. Till migrant workers started arriving, we had things pretty much under control,” said Bijoy Mohapatra, director of health services, Odisha.
Mohapatra’s concerns underscore a potential challenge Odisha and other eastern Indian states, which have a frail health care system, could be facing.
Bihar and Jharkhand, too, have seen a steady inflow of migrant workers returning home since the beginning of May as the central government allowed special buses and trains to ferry them to their destinations. Now, both states are reporting a steady rise and spread in fresh infections.
It took Odisha 42 days from March 15, when the first case was reported in the state, to record 100 infections. The next 100 cases took 15 days. The tally reached 300 in another week as migrant workers started returning. Then, the cases reached 400 in two just days. On Wednesday, Odisha’s case count crossed 500.
According to officials, an estimated 80,000 migrant workers have arrived from various states in buses and trains till Wednesday, and another 450,000 are expected to return in the next 10 days.
“Though most of the cases are quarantine centres, there is a danger of local transmission...the more we test, the more positives we will get,” Mohapatra said.
Wednesday, Odisha tested 72,756 samples. As of Tuesday, Odisha tested 1,621 samples per million, above the national average of 1,370.
Ganjam district collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said officials are taking all possible steps to stop the spread of the virus.
“All positive cases so far have been from the quarantine centres, which have been declared containment zones. In case a person comes from outside without our notice, the sarpanches have been asked to send them to a mandatory 28-day quarantine,” he said.
The fear of infections increasing with the arrival of migrant workers is not restricted to eastern India alone.
In Rajasthan, where about 1.3 million of an estimated 1.9 million migrant workers have returned, fresh Covid-19 cases have been reported from areas such as Dungarpur, Jhalawar, Sirohi and Jalore districts, which didn’t have any cases previously. Similarly, Khargone, Morena and Sagar districts in Madhya Pradesh were Covid-19free till people started returning from Maharashtra and Gujarat. Both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have made 14-day quarantine mandatory for all those coming back.