Rural areas become Covid-19 hotbed since migrants' return

PATNA: The Covid-19 cases in Bihar have been more in rural areas than cities and towns since migrant workers started returning home by Shramik special trains from other states since May 3.
The first three cases in Bihar were reported on March 22, including two in Patna and one of Munger resident. They had travel history from abroad. In April, mainly of people returning from Gulf countries and their close contacts had tested positive.In fact, only 425 Covid-19 cases were reported from 29 districts in Bihar till April 30. Then, only Patna, Gaya, Munger, Rohtas and Buxar districts were in red zone while 20 districts were in orange and 13 in green zones.
Traditionally migrant-intensive districts in Bihar like Madhubani, Darbhanga, Saharsa, Madhepura, Supaul, Purnea, Katihar and Kishanganj were not reporting Covid-19 cases before the inflow of migrants increased. For instance, Katihar, Kishanganj, Supaul and Saharsa had zero Covid-19 cases till May 1. The number of Covid-19 cases in Katihar surged to 150, while Kishanganj had 76, Supaul 83 and Saharsa 67 positive cases in a month till June 2.
In Madhubani, the number of Covid-19 cases surged from five on May 1 to 195 on June 2. Similarly, Darbhanga reported five cases on May 1 and the figure surged to 105 on June 2. Purnea had one case on May 1, but now has 105 cases.
Officials cite migrants' return as the reason behind surge in Covid cases in rural areas, particularly from the traditional migrant-intensive districts.
Health secretary Lokesh Kumar said the government was doing door-to-door survey of all the houses where migrants had returned. He said the village heads had been given the responsibility to inform the administration about any person returning home. "It's now mandatory to test all migrants having Covid symptoms. Random test is also being done. We are testing elderly, women and children on priority," he said. Till June 2, total 81,413 samples had been tested in Bihar.
There are 12,291 block level quarantine centres where 13,71,266 people stayed so far. However, the state government has decided to close all quarantine centres by June 15, citing that the 14-day period of the last batch of registered migrants will end by then.
Sources said a few migrants are quietly reaching home. For instance, Bhagalpur reported its first Covid death on May 28. The deceased had returned from Mumbai on May 24 and stayed with his family without informing the local administration. He was taken to hospital when his health deteriorated on May 28 and died the same day.
One anganwadi worker said she keeps vigil on such people. "Though villagers inform us about any one coming home from outside, there are still chances that we may miss out on getting information about such people," she said.