'Night shelters are full' says migrant worker in Delhi

Several migrant workers and daily wage labourers were forced to wait outside the Sarvodaya Co-ed Senior Secondary School in Patparganj as they were told that the "shelter home is full", here on Tuesday.

The school was converted into a temporary night shelter to accommodate daily wage workers and migrant workers, who fled their homes amid lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus crisis.

"We have been told that this shelter home is full. They are trying to shift us to another shelter home," one of the migrant workers told ANI.

The migrant workers were later shifted to another facility.

Hundreds of migrants, a majority of whom are daily wage workers started rushing on foot to their native places from different states amid uncertainty over their livelihood following the announcement of a 21-day nationwide lockdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week in order to contain the spread of novel coronavirus.

The total number of coronavirus cases in India climbed to 1397 on Tuesday after 146 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours across the country.

The death toll due to the COVID-19 rose to 35 while 123 cases were cured or discharged after treatment, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.