India’s eastern states will start testing migrant workers who have returned from other parts of the country for the coronavirus disease reg...
India’s eastern states will start testing migrant workers who have returned from other parts of the country for the coronavirus disease regardless of whether they have symptoms, officials in five states told Scroll.in.
While Bihar plans to collect random samples of asymptomatic migrant workers returning from anywhere in India, West Bengal said it will test those coming from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi. These three states are reporting higher number of Covid-19 cases.
Assam will test migrants returning from areas marked as red zones by the Union health ministry, as will Jharkhand. According to the Union health ministry, there are 130 red zones across India, with the maximum number in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.
So far, India’s testing has largely been restricted to symptomatic individuals – apart from close contacts of laboratory-confirmed patients. But with lakhs of migrant workers from poorer eastern India, who were stranded away from home during the lockdown, beginning to return to their native states after the Centre lifted restrictions on their movement on May 29, concerns are rising over a possible spread of infection.
Since thermal screening cannot detect asymptomatic cases, eastern states have decided to deploy the diagnostic RT-PCR or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test to...
