Nitish pitches for zone-wise testing for migrants as cases cross 1,000

The doubling period of positive cases in the state has come down to just 8.5 days, while it is 12.5 nationwide, though officials say it is due to sudden inflow of migrants and increased testing.

After issuing directives for ramping up testing in view of lakhs of migrant workers returning home, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar Thursday directed officials to work out a zone-wise strategy to ensure optimal and targeted utilisation of the existing limited resources.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had earlier said that the random testing in the state would not be enough anymore and the testing capacity must be increased to 10,000 per day.(ANI file photo)

In the last one week, Bihar has added 60-65 patients on an average everyday. From 556 Covid-19 positive cases on May 8, the number has touched 1,000 May 15 morning, adding 444 new cases in just seven days.

The doubling period of positive cases in the state has come down to just 8.5 days, while it is 12.5 nationwide, though officials say it is due to sudden inflow of migrants and increased testing.

As per statistics released by Sanjay Kumar, principal secretary (health) on Friday, three states, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi, accounted for 282 of the 358 migrants testing positive between May 4 and 15, which comes to 79% of the total.

“The data in the third phase of lockdown shows that roughly around 7% of the returning migrants tested after reaching Bihar turned out to be positive, as most of them are coming from red zones. This is the fear Bihar always had. The CM has categorically stated that testing should be increased and facilities developed across all districts to track positive cases early for isolation and treatment to prevent spread,” said an official.

However, with barely around 2,000 samples getting tested in Bihar everyday, the situation is far from satisfactory.

During a review meeting with top officials, Kumar said the number of migrants would only increase in the coming days and therefore it was important to focus on those coming from vulnerable pockets and red zone areas, as per a press statement issued by the Bihar government late Thursday evening.

“There should be some zone-wise strategy for testing as well as putting them under quarantine, as people are coming from different zones, where the situation is different,” he said.

Bulk of the migrants reaching Bihar are from worst-affected Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, while there are others spread across various other states, including Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh etc.

With another three-lakh migrants estimated to reach Bihar by special trains in the next one week, Kumar said testing facility must be started in all the districts without delay.

Earlier, Kumar had said that the random testing In the state would not be enough anymore and the testing capacity must be increased to 10,000 per day.

The Bihar government has already announced that 15 TrueNat machines would be installed at 13 district hospitals in the state, while 25 more are in pipeline. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had on April 10 validated the usage of TrueNat, a diagnostic machine for testing test drug-resistant tuberculosis, for Covid-19 tests.