E-Paper
Migrants didn’t cause spurt in Covid infections: Study
PATNA Despite the massive inflow of migrants to Bihar from across the country during the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown last year, which caught the global attention due to their agonising tales, there was no major spread of virus due to them in Patna, a study has found
PATNA
Despite the massive inflow of migrants to Bihar from across the country during the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown last year, which caught the global attention due to their agonising tales, there was no major spread of virus due to them in Patna, a study has found.
The study, “Learning from Covid-19 cases — A sociological study of Patna district”, by K C Saha, former member, Lokayukta, and former chairman of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), during June 2020 and May 2021, has been published by the Centre of Health Policy, Asian Development Research Insitute (ADRI).
The study by Saha, a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, attempted to assess the scope and distribution of Covid-19, how infected persons and their families coped with it and measures taken by the government agencies and the community in controlling its spread. It involved over 23,000 positive cases, 200 interviews of families, interaction with officials and panchayati raj representatives.
Patna was the worst hit in terms of infection and the executive officer of the Patna Municipal Corporation said all 75 wards of the city had reported cases. “The officials, however, mentioned an interesting phenomenon of Covid spread — none of the slums in their areas reported a single case of Covid, whereas many VIP areas of town reported a number of cases,” says the study.
Another important finding shared by the PMC was that except for 3-4 persons, none of the 7,300 sanitary employees of the PMC, who mostly stay in slums or their family members, had been affected by Covid. It might be because all the sanitary staff had been vaccinated before the second wave.
During the second wave, the study says, the migrant labourers did not return to Bihar in large numbers. “But many families returned during Holi. This festival was celebrated in Bihar from March 26-30, 2021, but it was a low-key affair. However, the arrival of a large number of persons during Holi could have contributed to its spread. Further, markets and offices remained open. Secondly, there was no restriction on the movement of people. Use of mask increased during the second wave, but still many people did not use masks,” it says, adding the lockdown from May 5-June 8 resulted in drop in positivity rate after a major jump before that.
