COVID-19 Infection May Spread To Villages As Returning Migrant Workers Test Positive For Virus

Migrant workers stranded across India can finally return to their homes and villages in different cities after the government allowed travel for them through running "Shramik Special" trains a couple of days ago.

However, with their return, an immense fear of coronavirus infection reaching the hinterlands of the country looms large. State governments fear that returning migrants will bring home the virus.

On May 3, 14 migrant workers in institutional quarantine since returning to their native Chhattisgarh tested positive for COVID-19. In some cases, migrants who sneaked across the state borders carry a more alarming spectre of infections.

Similar developments are being reported from other Indian states as well.

AFP

Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan and Jharkhand have witnessed a spurt in COVID-19 cases since May 1 and a majority of them are linked to migrant workers who have returned home from various cities. State officials have also asserted that rural India is no longer safe from the coronavirus pandemic which has infected more than 70,000 people countrywide.

Thirty-eight migrant workers from Anantapur, Kurnool and Kadapa districts, who returned from Maharashtra in a Shramik Special train, tested positive for COVID-19. The infectees were shifted to COVID hospitals, the remaining were sent to quarantine centres.

Briefing the media on May 12, Special Chief Secretary KS Jawahar Reddy said the migrants had come from Kalyani in Mumbai. ¡°They are all quarantined and being tested in batches. We expect the count to increase further,¡± he noted. He added that another batch of 10 persons who returned from Varanasi tested positive in West Godavari.

Recently, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the state ministers of all the states, he had put special emphasis on preventing the infection from spreading to villages.

AFP

In a six-hour long video conference on May 11 with the chief ministers of all the Indian states and Union territories, Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed with them measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

PM Modi emphasised that until a vaccine is developed, social distancing is the biggest weapon in the fight against COVID-19.

Modi emphasised now the effort should be to stop the spread of the COVID-19 to rural areas.

Several chief ministers pointed out that with the return of migrants, there is a need to concentrate on strict implementation of the social distancing guidelines, usage of masks and sanitization in order to curb the spread through fresh infection, especially in rural areas.