Bihar sees ‘migrant multiplier’ in spike, tally at 528

Bihar could witness a spike in coronavirus after government officials said that nearly 60%-70% positive cases reported during the last 10 days were of people who

Bihar could witness a spike in coronavirus after government officials said that nearly 60%-70% positive cases reported during the last 10 days were of people who returned from outside the state.

HT Image

Though the health department Monday claimed it did not have separate data on migrant workers, its principal secretary, Sanjay Kumar, said, “Going by our experience over the past 10 days, almost 60% to 70% of the tested samples, which came positive, were of people who came from outside the state.”

As per the government data, which Kumar had shared through a series of tweets, Bihar has reported 374 Covid-19 cases in the last 10 days since April 23. On Sunday, it reported 36 cases.

Bihar, which has reported 528 Covid-19 cases with four deaths so far, expects to receive in the next few days a huge influx of people, largely migrant workers and students, after it successfully impressed upon the Centre to run special trains for them.

Six special trains, each carrying between 1,000 and 1,200 passengers, have reached Bihar ever since the first such train from Jaipur arrived at the Danapur railway junction in Patna on May 2.

“Nine more trains are lined up to reach Bihar Tuesday,” said Pratyaya Amrit, principal secretary, disaster management department (DMD.

He said the state government was trying to arrange for 8-10 such trains to come to Bihar on a daily basis from different parts of the country.

“Of the nine trains, three — of which two from Bengaluru and one from Kota — will arrive at Danapur,” said Amrit.

“One train each from Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Ernakulam (Kerala) will reach Muzaffarpur; and a train each from Kota (Rajasthan) and Thrissur (Kerala) will reach Darbhanga. One more train from Ernakulam will reach Barauni (in Bihar’s Begusarai district), while a train from Kannur (Kerala) will reach Saharsa tomorrow,” added Amrit.

Soliciting public cooperation, Amrit said it was a huge administrative challenge as Bihar was entering the last, critical phase when people from outside the state were coming either by road or train and overall movements were up.

The information and public relations department (IPRD) has so far claimed it did not have exact data on the number of migrant workers outside the state. Officials, however, said they had received 1.55 lakh phone calls and messages, involving around 20 lakh people stranded outside the state, on the integrated helpline numbers of the state disaster management department, the chief minister’s secretariat and the Bihar Bhawan in New Delhi.

“Of these, around 18.78 lakh people, whose calls had been validated, have so far been paid Rs 1,000 into their bank accounts through the chief minister’s special assistance fund,” said IPRD secretary Anupam Kumar.

The DMD had recently said that 90% calls on its helpline numbers (0612-2294204 and 2294205) were of callers, who requested the government to make arrangements for their safe passage to Bihar.

Of the 11 new cases Monday, Madhubani reported five, Begusarai and Kaimur two each and a case each in West Champaran and Samastipur.

The 528 Covid-19 cases were spread across 32 of Bihar’s 38 districts, with Munger topping at 102.

It was followed by Buxar with 56 cases, Rohtas (52), Patna (44), Nalanda (36), Siwan (31), Kaimur (30), Madhubani (23), Gopalganj, Bhojpur (18 each), Aurangabad, Begusarai (13 each), Bhagalpur, West Champaran (11 each), East Champaran (9), Saran (8), Gaya, Sitamarhi (6 each), Darbhanga, Katihar, Arwal (5 each), Lakhisarai, Nawada, Jehanabad, (4 each), Banka, Vaishali (3 each), Madhepura, Araria (2 each), Purnea, Sheikhpura, Sheohar, Samastipur (1 each).