Returning migrants cause surge of Covid-19 cases in rural Bengal
ONLY 3 OF BENGAL’S 23 DISTRICTS NOW REMAIN GREEN ZONES, WHERE NO CASE HAS BEEN DETECTED SO FAR
The coronavirus disease has spread to Bengal’s rural areas with nearly 200 migrant workers who recently returned from other states testing positive for the infection, and the numbers likely to rise as more arrive.
The trend is similar to that noticed in Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, the other states where a large number of migrants have returned from states like Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab.
According to a senior West Bengal health department official 76 people tested positive in rural areas of Howrah district; 67 in the rural areas of Malda; 46 in Hooghly district and 30 in Uttar Dinajpur over the past three days. Several cases have been reported from rural areas of Birbhum, Murshidabad and North 24-Parganas district as well, he said, requesting anonymity.
Almost all of the rural residents who tested positive were migrant workers who returned from other states, especially Maharashtra, officials said. More than a dozen trains have entered Bengal so far, carrying migrant workers, students and tourists stranded in other states.
No Shramik Special trains entered Bengal between May 20 and 26 because of Cyclone Amphan, but more are likely to arrive over the next few days.
A spokesperson for southeastern railway on Tuesday said the division had no word until 6pm of any train from Maharashtra coming to Bengal on Wednesday.
According to a state government official, the Bengal government urged Maharashtra to delay sending those trains because Bengal is yet to recover from the devastation caused by the cyclone, but to no avail.
“In my district, the spike is due to migrants testing positive. All of them are asymptomatic. Besides, we are testing aggressively, with an average of over 3,000 tests per million population. Tracing such asymptomatic patients and keeping them isolated is our primary agenda,” said Malda district magistrate Rajarshi Mitra.
In Malda, nearly three dozen people have tested positive for
Covid-19 in the remote Kaliachak area, bordering Bangladesh. All of them recently returned from other states.
In Hooghly district, 22 migrant workers tested positive on Saturday in rural parts of Khanakul. Others are from Singur, Tarakeshwar, Jangippara, Chanditala and Dadpur — all rural areas in Hooghly district.
In Nadia district, after 10 persons from rural areas tested positive in four days, Krishnanagar MP and Trinamool Congress spokesperson Mahua Moitra said in a video message: “I urge migrant workers who have returned recently to strictly maintain home quarantine norms. I am getting reports that a section of migrant workers are moving out of their homes in the evening and socialising. Please stop doing this. Schools are being requisitioned and they would be turned into quarantine centres for the migrant workers soon.”
The spread of Covid-19 had so far been restricted to Kolkata and urban areas of the neighbouring districts of Howrah, Hooghly, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas. With this recent spread to new areas, only three of Bengal’s 23 districts now remain green zones, where no case has been detected so far.