Migrants back in Bihar show high positivity: 1 in 4 tested from Delhi

Of the 835 samples taken from migrant workers who returned from Delhi, as many as 218 were Covid positive. This works out to a positivity rate of over 26%, while the rate in the national capital is about 7%.

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Coronavirus lockdown: Thousands gathered at Ramlila Maidan in Ghaziabad on Monday to register for six trains bound for other parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Testing of migrant workers returning to Bihar is underlining the twin challenge that public health experts have warned about — the virus is being carried in and many of the carriers are asymptomatic.

Until May 18, Bihar tested a total of 8,337 samples of migrant workers and about 8% were found to be Covid-positive — double the national average positivity rate which is about 4%.

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Of the 835 samples taken from migrant workers who returned from Delhi, as many as 218 were Covid positive. This works out to a positivity rate of over 26%, while the rate in the national capital is about 7%.

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Incidentally, the count of migrants tested from each state is not proportional to the total number who have returned from that state.

Yet, Delhi is an outlier along with Bengal and Haryana.

Of the 265 samples of migrant workers who returned from West Bengal, 33 tested positive. The positivity rate was 12%, while West Bengal’s positivity rate is 3%.

Read| Testing umbrella to now cover migrants, those in hospitals with symptoms

Of the 390 samples of migrant workers who returned from Haryana, 36 were found to be positive. The positivity rate was 9%, while Haryana’s positivity rate is 1.16%.

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The data emerging from Bihar is not only crucial for the state’s containment strategy, but also for the national capital.

Read | 11,000 gather at Ghaziabad for ticket home, 9,000 find a place on six trains

First, it indicates the presence of a large asymptomatic population in Delhi. Second, it can guide the public health authorities in the national capital to carry out contact tracing of these migrants, and contain the spread in areas that may have gone unnoticed.

Migrants returning from other states reported a positivity rate similar to that state’s figure.

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So 141 of the 1,283 samples of migrant workers who returned to Bihar from Maharashtra tested positive, showing a positivity rate of 11% (the state’s positivity rate is 11.7%).

Of the 2,045 samples of migrants who returned from Gujarat, 139 tested positive. The positivity rate was 6.8%; it is 7.9% in Gujarat.

Of the 704 samples of migrants who returned from Uttar Pradesh, 21 tested positive. The positivity rate was 3%; it is 2.59% in UP.

Of the 430 samples of migrants who returned from Rajasthan, 16 tested positive. The positivity rate was 3.7%; it is 2.24% in Rajasthan.

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Among the southern states, 6 of the 203 samples of migrant workers who returned from Karnataka tested positive. The positivity rate was 3%; it is 0.78% in Karnataka.

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Of the 430 samples of migrants who returned from Rajasthan, 16 tested positive.

Of the 219 samples of migrants who returned from Kerala, 4 tested positive. The positivity rate was 1.8%; it is 1.33% in Kerala.

Of the 57 samples of migrants who returned from Tamil Nadu, 2 tested positive. The positivity rate was 3.5%; it is 3.43% in Tamil Nadu.

However, of the 367 samples of migrant workers who returned from Telangana, 6 tested positive. The positivity rate was 1.6%; it is 6.6% in Telangana.

Kaunain Sheriff M

Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health. His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award. Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time. Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More

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