Coronavirus update: UP DMs, CMOs told to screen migrants

Coronavirus update: In Noida, around 20 workers in a factory were found positive as some people in the factory had travelled to United Kingdom, additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said.

The state government on Sunday directed the district magistrates and chief medical officers (CMO) of all 75 districts to screen and quarantine all the migrants who reached their villages from Delhi, other states and foreign countries, for 14 days.

Migrant workers in Haryana’s Rohtak headed back home to their towns and villages board on to Roadways buses on day 5 of the 21 day nationwide lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus.(Manoj Dhaka/HT File Photo)

Addressing a joint press conference, additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi and principal secretary, health said chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed the district magistrates and CMOs of all the districts to screen and quarantine the migrants. The state government had also contacted the 58,000 gram pradhans and ward councillors across the state to assist the district administration in screening and quarantine of the migrants. Those asymptomatic would be admitted to hospitals and other migrants would be home quarantined, he said.

Awasthi said there was no community spread of Sars-Cov-2 in UP yet. The number of positive cases in the state was 68 till Sunday evening. All the patients had travel history or the people who came in contact with the travellers were infected.

In Noida, around 20 workers in a factory were found positive as some people in the factory had travelled to United Kingdom, he said.

Principal secretary, health, Amit Mohan Prasad said none of the positive patients admitted to the hospital was on ventilator. The condition of all the 54 was stable. Fourteen patients had recovered and discharged from the hospital. To strengthen the facilities in the hospitals, the state government had decided to purchase 200 ventilators, he said.

Prasad said the state government had decided to establish hospitals for coronavirus in all the 75 districts. The community health centres would be converted into dedicated Sars-Cov-2 hospitals. The specialised hospitals would be established on the premises of the SGPGI Lucknow, KGMU Lucknow, BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur and Government Medical College, Meerut. All the other medical colleges and district hospitals at divisional headquarters would be also converted into corona hospitals, he said.

Prasad said the state government was also tying up with the private hospitals to convert their premises into corona hospital.

Awasthi said chief minister Yogi Adityanatth had urged the people in other states not to move out and to follow the lockdown rules. The nodal officers appointed by the state government for various states would coordinate with the local administration to provide food and shelter to the migrants, he said.

He said the state government had issued order that landlords would not demand rent from the labourers and working class people living on their premises. The private companies would open their offices on March 30 and 31 to transfer salary into the account of the employees. The employers would not deduct the salary of the employees.