Influx of migrant workers affects Bihar and Odisha badly, shows data

The spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in Bihar, Odisha and Himachal Pradesh shows that these three states have been adversely affected by the pandemic among the ones that witnessed a large influx of migrants.

On May 1, the Railways began operating ‘Sharamik Special’ trains to ferry migrants stranded in various states to their home states. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh saw a huge influx of migrants over the last few days.

This increased the positivity rate in these states. Positivity rate is the number of positive cases per hundred tests conducted in a state.

Bihar saw the maximum rise in the positivity rate, which was 1.9 per cent until May 1. But the rate increased to 4.3 per cent on May 25 as the number of cases rose to 2,737 from 466 in a few days.

Odisha saw a twofold increase in the positivity rate. On May 1, it was 0.5 per cent, while it rose to 1.1 per cent on May 26. Himachal Pradesh too witnessed an increase in the rate from 0.6 per cent to 0.8 per cent in the last 25 days.

However, the positivity rate in Uttar Pradesh remained constant at 2.8 per cent. Interestingly Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh saw a decline in the positivity rate over the same period of time. It dropped from 1 per cent to 0.8 per cent in Jharkhand and from 6.2 to 5 per cent in Madhya Pradesh.

In terms of cases, Odisha is the worst-affected state. On May 1, it had only 154 cases, which increased to 1,438 on May 25. Cases in Bihar and Himachal Pradesh increased six times at the same time. Himachal Pradesh which had only 40 cases on May 1, had 223 cases, 25 days later.

But the states that witnessed a decline or no increase in positivity rate too saw a steep increase in the number of cases. The number of cases in Uttar Pradesh has increased from 2,281 cases on May 1 to 6,497. Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had 113 and 2,715 cases respectively on May 1. But they currently have 403 and 6,859 cases.

However, the death rate in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha is below 1 per cent, while it is at 1.8 per cent in Himachal Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh has the highest death rate among these states. It is 4.4 per cent, which is one and a half times higher than the national average of 2.9 per cent.