Return Of Migrants Make Rural India Next COVID-19 Danger Zone

NEW DELHI: With the return of migrants to their home states, India is witnessing a spike in the coronavirus cases as states reported a jump ranging between 30% and 80% in rural areas. India saw the biggest jump of more than 9,200 coronavirus cases on Thursday pushing the tally to 2,16,919. The number of deaths reported to date is 6,075. The number of infections are rising steadily and India reported the world's third-highest number of cases in a single day on Wednesday.

According to the reports, the rural areas in Rajasthan have reported a surge in the number of coronavirus cases surpassing the numbers in urban areas. This is being attributed to the fact that migrant labourers who were working in different parts of the state are reaching home. Dungarpur, Jalore, Jodhpur, Nagaur and Pali reported more cases.

In Andhra Pradesh, the coronavirus outbreak was limited to the urban areas a month ago but now cases are being reported in rural areas as well. AP reported nearly 1,500 cases in the last three weeks, of which about 500 cases are from the rural areas of the state.

The central government has identified 145 new districts that have reported new cases over the last three weeks. Most of these districts are from Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.

Health Ministry official said that, “It is primarily because of the return of migrant workers from Covid-19 hotspot states that the cases increased in eastern India. As the rush of migrant workers was huge, there was no proper screening of passengers at railway and bus stations. Therefore, many took infections from one state to another.”

More than 400 districts out of 732 districts in India have been affected by coronavirus as of April 18. Now, the number has increased to 653 by June 3, with a majority of new districts being rural. Rural districts in the country accounted for 21% of the total number of cases till the last week of May but now the numbers are going to increase as more than 57 lakh migrant workers have reached their villages in Shramik Specials and at least 40 lakh others in buses by June 2. So, there is an urgent need to test, isolate and trace contacts in rural India or else it may become the next COVID-19 hotspot.