Heartland sees decline in cases as migrants’ return slows down

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand have over the last week reported a decline in Covid-19 cases for the first time since May 1 when migrant workers left jobless by the Covid-19 pandemic started returning to their homes in larger numbers with the start of special trains for them. A bulk of the workers employed in better-off places like Maharashtra are from these four states. The return of the workers coincided with a spike in the number of infections in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand

As many as 356 cases daily were reported in the second week of June in Uttar Pradesh, compared to 412 in the first week of the month. “Over 500 cases were reported on Saturday and Sunday because of the results of the pending test reports. Otherwise, the rate of increase has gone down,” said principal secretary (health and family welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad.

Officials said the return of three million workers to Uttar Pradesh since mid-April caused a spike in Covid-19 cases in the state.

Prasad said till June 14, there were 1.6 million migrant workers under home quarantine and only 1,455 of them had coronavirus symptoms. “Samples of those who showed symptoms have been taken,” he said.

Bihar health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh said the number of cases has increased but the rate of growth has slowed down. There was a 10.81% increase in the cases in the second week of June compared to about 12% in the first. “The peak of returning migrant workers is over,” said Singh, explaining the decrease.

The number of cases in Bihar increased to 6,581 on June 15 from 3,923 on June 1.

The railway ministry also reduced the number of special trains from June 15 because of a decrease in their demand.

According to Bihar public relations department, around 2.1 million workers have returned to Bihar since May 1. Only 2,50,000 of them came in the first two weeks of June. “Most of the migrant workers, who arrived by Shramik special trains to Bihar between May 3 and June 11, have completed their mandatory [14-day] quarantine period,” said Anupam Kumar, Bihar’s public relations secretary.

Anupam Kumar said only 6,082 workers were in quarantine centres as on Monday. He added they expect the cases to go down as very few workers are expected to return.

Jharkhand has on average reported 50 cases daily after June 8 when it recorded the highest ever single-day spike with 187 infections. From 610 cases on May 31, the state’s tally on June 15 increased to 1,151.

“The inflow of migrants was very high in May leading to a huge backlog of untested samples. As we cleared the backlog, there was a spike in cases,” said state health department’s principal secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni. “The inflow of migrants has substantially reduced... we have seen a downward trend of the Covid growth...”

The number of cases recorded in Madhya Pradesh fell from 1,424 in the last week of May to 1,401 in the second week of June. Officials said it is because only 54,282 workers have returned to the state in June compared to over 300,000 in May. “...49,280 are under home quarantined and remaining under institutional quarantined,” said an official.

(With inputs from Ranjan in Bhopal)