COVID-19 cases may rise as migrants arrive, but our duty to take care of them: Odisha CM

The state has set up a registration system that will capture every worker’s arrival, quarantine them for 14 days in local facilities built across the state and then release or hospitalize them based on their symptoms and corona test results.

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Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. (File)

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday cautioned that the days ahead will be the most critical as the state prepares to receive its migrant labour population from highly infected states in the country.

The state government had earlier said it was making arrangements to receive between 5 and 7.5 lakh workers from the state residing outside for livelihood opportunities. The state has set up a registration system that will capture every worker’s arrival, quarantine them for 14 days in local facilities built across the state and then release or hospitalize them based on their symptoms and corona test results.

Speaking in Odia, Patnaik said, “The next few days will be critical. We will be receiving migrant workers from the most infected states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan and West Bengal”.

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“They are our own people. In times of danger, people remember their motherland first”, Patnaik said in a potential rebuttal of any apprehension related to this arrival. “It is our duty to take care of them”.

“Positive cases may rise as people arrive from outside (the state), but the situation can be kept under control if there is full cooperation from the public”, he said.

Odisha on Wednesday reported 122 positive cases, with fresh detections in districts such as Keonjhar and Koraput.

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