E-Paper
With 30 districts in virus grip, Bihar braces for trainloads of migrants
PATNA
PATNA
From just 12 districts in the state with Covid-19 positive cases at the end of the first spell of lockdown to 30 of the 38 districts as the second spell nears its end has raised concerns for Bihar, which is bracing to receive train loads of its natives stranded across the country.
While the number of positive cases was just 66 on April 14 in the state, it reached 475 at 10 am on May 2, with 243 cases reported in seven days between April 25 and May 1.
The government has already deferred all leaves of doctors, health officials and contractual employees in the health department till May 31 in view of growing need for surveillance and screening.
What is worrying for the state is that many of the new cases reported in the second phase of lockdown are migrants, who somehow managed to reach Bihar and took the infection to newer areas unknowingly as they were largely asymptomatic and did not report.
North Bihar districts like Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi and Purnea remained free from Covid-19 infection until the last week of the second phase of the lockdown, but now they all have cases.
Madhubani, with 13 cases reported on Friday only, has now emerged as the hot spot in north Bihar.
Neighbouring Darbhanga has five cases while Sitamarhi has six. East and West Champaran have five cases each, while Seemanchal region has too reported cases - Purnea and Araria (1 each) and Katihar (2).
Madhubani district magistrate Dr Nilesh Ramchandra Deor, who is himself a doctor, said all the 13 positive cases detected in the district had been found to be migrants from Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow, while the origin of the earlier five cases was traced to a woman who came by car from Delhi.
“Due to her, another woman, who also travelled in the car and two children, contracted infection,” he said.
With Madhubani sharing borders with Nepal and inflow of migrants likely to increase, there are greater concerns for district, famous for exquisite Madhubani paintings and rich cultural heritage, and the surveillance, screening and quarantine facilities have been intensified.
“There is lockdown in Nepal also till May 7. People are not coming from that side and if anyone tries to sneak through, it is immediately detected due to heightened surveillance. All outsiders have to spend the required time in the quarantine facilities. There was no positive case in Madhubani earlier, but as migrants have started returning cases have surfaced. The administration is on its toes. We have to remain vigilant,” he added.
In Madhubani, five blocks, Jhanjharpur, Rajnagar, Jainagar, Kalyani and Radhika, have reported Covid-19 positive cases. Madhubani and its neighbouring Darbhanga have already been put under ‘orange zone’.
