Migrant workers a worry for Assam too

A Bihar-like situation seems to be unfolding in Assam, India, though the scale is comparatively small as of now. Migrant workers coming back to their home towns have triggered a fresh wave of infections in the state, leading to a sharp rise in new cases.

On Monday, Assam detected 148 new cases to take its tally to 526. Almost all of the new cases are people returning from other places, or their direct contacts. The fresh wave of infections had begun immediately after the lockdown restrictions were eased on May 4, but there has been a major acceleration in the last one week. In this time, the number of positive cases in the state has jumped more than five times, making Assam one of the fastest growing states at the moment.

The first round of infections in Assam was triggered by people who had attended the Tabligh Jamaat event in New Delhi. During that time, 42 people in the state had tested positive. All most of them, barring one who had died, had recovered from the disease before this fresh wave of infections started.

A few other states in the region have also reported positive cases among their returning natives. Nagaland discovered its first three cases on Monday, amongst people returning from Chennai. Later, a fourth case, also a returnee from Chennai, was discovered. Earlier, a Nagaland resident in Guwahati had been found infected. He was hospitalised in Guwahati and recovered from the disease, and was not counted in Nagaland.

Manipur, which had just two cases earlier, has found over 30 more people infected with the virus. Nearly all of them have come back from cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad. The state has a total of 36 positive cases now.

There has been a minor spurt in Tripura as well. Most of the state’s earlier cases were confined to a BSF camp in Dhalai district. More than 150 BSF personnel had been found to be infected. But in the last couple of days, some migrants also have tested positive, and the state now has 198 confirmed infections.

In Meghalaya, a family of 13 that had been found infected earlier had recovered, but at least one new case amongst the returning migrant has been detected in the state on Monday.

A trend similar to the north-east region is being observed in Uttarakhand as well, where the number of infections has grown by over three times in the last one week. The state has more than 330 confirmed infections now.

After nearly 7,000 new cases on Sunday, there was a slight dip on Monday, with just over 6,000 cases being discovered. This could be attributed to a substantial decrease in the numbers reported by Maharashtra. The state, which had reported close to 3,000 cases on Sunday, found 2,436 on Monday. Mumbai accounted for more than 60 per cent of this number. The city now has also recorded more than 1,000 deaths of people infected with novel Coronavirus.

Bihar, in the meanwhile, continued to add numbers at a fast pace. On Monday, Bihar reported 163 fresh cases, and it has now overtaken Andhra Pradesh to become the state with the ninth highest caseload in the country.

Source: The Indian Express