As UP plans return of migrant workers,10 positive so far

Shravasti Chief Medical Officer Dr AP Bhargava said all the three fresh cases in the district are of migrant workers who returned from Agra and Nagpur around mid-April. “The good thing is that all of them were kept in quarantine. We have not allowed anyone coming from outside to return to their homes. The man from Agra was kept at a primary school along with four others. The other two were in quarantine with at least 25 others. Samples of all of them have been sent for testing,” said the CMO.

So far, around 500 persons have entered the district from outside, he added.

In Balrampur, the man who tested positive had returned from Mumbai and was kept in quarantine with 40 others.

“The man had left Mumbai on April 13 with three of his co-workers. For some distance, they walked and then got a lift. They reached Balramnpur from Sidharthnagar border where they were kept in a primary school. From there, we brought them to a quarantine centre here. The man tested positive during random sampling. The three, who had accompanied them, have tested negative. All the four are asymptomatic. While there are more people at the quarantine centre, the three are considered to be his immediate contacts,” said Superintendent of Police Dev Ranjan Verma.

According to the SP, around 30,000 people have entered Balrampur district. “A lot of time, they enter the district through forest areas or along railway tracks. Only yesterday (Thursday), five people returned from Haryana. The silver lining is that people are becoming aware and inform us about the returnee migrants,” he added.

In Bahraich, the migrant workers who have tested positive returned from Nepal. Bahraich District Magistrate Shambhu Kumar said that one of them came via Punjab. “While one of them was at a quarantine facility, another was kept at a shelter home. The rest were hiding in their homes,” said the DM.

The first migrant worker to test positive in Uttar Pradesh was an 18-year-old, who had come from Bihar and was at a shelter home in Bhadohi district. He tested positive on April 10.

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