After migrants jump quarantine, Odisha reduces isolation tenure to 14 days
In several quarantine centres the inmates have gone on strike protesting the quality of food while in other places villagers are uneasy about having quarantine centres next to their homes.
With the pressure of keeping over 2 lakh migrant workers in quarantine centres for 21 days proving difficult in view of frequent protests at such centres and migrants jumping quarantine, the Odisha government on Sunday brought down the total quarantine period from 28 days to 14 days.
Special relief commissioner Pradeep Jena said in rural areas the migrant workers will undergo 7 days of mandatory institutional quarantine after which the asymptomatic ones will be discharged for home quarantine for a further period of 7 days. Earlier, all returning migrant workers in rural areas had to compulsorily stay in 21 days of official quarantine followed by 7 days of home quarantine. They were also stamped with indelible ink on their left arm.
Jena, however, said government officials, professionals, businessmen or any other person travelling to Odisha on work and leaving within 72 hours would be exempted from mandatory quarantine. Besides, anyone who has already undergone the prescribed quarantine period in any other state would also be exempted from quarantine in Odisha.
Additional chief secretary of the health department, PK Mohapatra said the change in quarantine policy came following changes in ICMR guidelines.
Officials however admitted that shortening the quarantine period was necessary to free up school buildings and Anganwadi centres that are currently being used as quarantine centres. So far 2.4 lakh migrant workers have been quarantined in Odisha after lockdown was relaxed.
A senior official said reducing the quarantine period was necessary as more and more jumping of quarantine norms were being reported across the state with gram panchayats feeling the pressure of keeping the migrant workers in the centres.
In several quarantine centres the inmates have gone on strike protesting the quality of food while in other places villagers are uneasy about having quarantine centres next to their homes.
In Sundargarh district, four migrant workers escaped from an institutional quarantine at a school in Gurundia block early Sunday morning. The inmates who had returned from Kerala and Maharashtra jumped the school’s boundary wall protesting the quality of food served there.
“The returning migrant workers have proved to be a big headache for us. It seems the prime duty of the Sarpanch is now to ensure that the inmates complete their quarantine period,” said a Sarpanch in Ganjam district, the epicentre of Covid-19 in Odisha.
The state government’s shortening of the quarantine period came on the day more than 200 migrant workers fled a ‘Shramik Special’ train near Balibagada in Ganjam district after pulling the alarm chain. The ‘Shramik Special’ train carrying Odisha migrants from Namapalli in Telangana was going towards Khordha Road station in Bhubaneswar.
After some locals spotted the migrant returnees coming via the railway track towards Balibagada area, they informed the police and the Railway Protection Force.
Pradeep Jena said the Centre’s decision to run more Shramik Special trains without any prior information and without the consent of the state government, would make things difficult for Odisha.
The Centre earlier used to inform the state government about Shramik Special trains leaving for Odisha as well as the particulars of the migrant workers travelling in it, he said.
