1,230 migrant workers test corona positive in UP, Barabanki becomes new hotspot

With over 20 lakh migrant workers returning to Uttar Pradesh in last few days, the state, specially its eastern part, on Thursday saw a quantum jump in the COVID-19 cases, with overall 1,230 people testing positive, including 95 in Barabanki, said officials.

"Over 5.42 lakh migrants were screened by health workers and among them 1,230 have been found positive for coronavirus. Samples of 46,142 have been sent for testing," said Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Amit Mohan Prasad here.

Prasad said the state government has asked migrant workers to strictly observe home quarantine protocol while the 'village/mohalla nigrani samitis' have been asked to keep a strict vigil on them.

During home quarantine, they have been asked specifically stay away from elderly people besides children and pregnant woman, said Prasad.

Barabanki District Magistrate Aadarsh Kumar said of the 245 samples sent for testing on May 15-16, 95 have been found corona positive.

Among those who tested positive, 49 are migrants who had recently returned from other states, the DM said, adding all infected people have been admitted to hospitals as per the COVID-19 treatment protocol.

The remaining 46 are those who had come in contact with six infected persons and had been kept in isolation, the DM said.

According to Basti DM Ashutosh Niranjan, 16 more coronavirus-positive cases were found in the district on Thursday, raising the total number of infected cases there to 120.

All 50 new cases detected on Tuesday were of migrant workers who had returned recently from other states, said Niranjan.

Pratapgarh reported 10 new cases and Ghazipur 18 on Wednesday, while on Thursday, 15 cases were reported in Azamgarh with DM N P Singh saying that the coronavirus infection graph has gone up with the return of migrants from other states.

In Siddhartnagar, 11 new cases were reported on Thursday with most of them being migrants having returned from Mumbai, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Seema Rai said.

Another 16 cases were reported from Jaunpur of which 15 had come back from Mumbai and one from Surat, District Magistrate Dinesh Kumar Singh said.

Besides, eight migrant workers who had returned from Maharashtra and Gujarat tested positive in Maharajganj, DM Dr Ujjawl Kumar said.

Uttar Pradesh reported 181 fresh cases on Thursday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases to 5,356 while 127 people having died of the disease so far, officials said.

There are 2,130 active cases of COVID-19 in the state. As many as 3,099 patients have been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

Meanwhile, over 15 lakh UP migrants, stranded in different parts of the country due to the COVID-19-led lockdown, have returned to the state in 881 trains since the 'Shramik Special' trains were deployed, an official said, adding over 20 lakh migrants have arrived in the state so far.