Bihar likely to see rise in COVID-19 cases due to inflow of migrants

The migrants returning home from other states constituted three-fourths of the 200 new coronavirus cases detected in Bihar last week, a top official told Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday (May 11).

On May 9, Bihar witnessed the largest single-day spike in the number of cases testing positive for COVID-19. As many as 49 fresh cases of the disease were reported in the state. However, 44 of them were migrant labourers who had returned from various parts of the country, mostly in the special trains arranged for them.

#BiharFightsCorona of the 49 who tested covid-19 +ve yesterday,44 are migrants who have come from different parts of the country.

— sanjay kumar (@sanjayjavin) May 10, 2020

This was confirmed by Sanjay Kumar, the principal secretary of the state’s health department. In the last few days, Bihar has seen a huge inflow of migrant labourers. This recently prompted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to direct that random testing be conducted in all the districts.

According to the 2011 census, Bihar has the second-highest number of people migrating out of the state after Uttar Pradesh. Bihar then had 17.2 lakh people living in other states. However, the number has increased rapidly in the last decade.

Earlier this year, the Institute of Population Sciences released its findings which showed that over half of the households in Bihar had been exposed to migration. Approximately, 40 lakh people from Bihar had been working in other states before the COVID-19 lockdown began.

Related News: Job scenario not pleasant for returning migrants in Bihar

Recently, the Bihar government announced that it would provide a financial aid of ₹1,000 to each migrant worker who enters Bihar from other states or has been stranded there. So far, more than 29 lakh migrant workers have registered to get the assistance from the government, reported Hindustan Times.

Before sending the migrants workers, who arrive in the state, to their hometowns, the government has been conducting mandatory health checks, besides providing them with food and water. With a few special trains having arrived in the state, only several thousand workers have been screened. When the arrivals increase, the number of cases too is likely to spike.

As of 5 pm on Monday (May 11), as many as 724 cases have been reported in Bihar. On May alone, 78 new cases were reported. The state has so far tested 36,053 samples.