MUMBAI - Indian states witnessing millions of migrant laborers returning from the big cities are recording rising coronavirus infections, officials said on Tuesday, fearing that the pandemic could spread through villages where medical care is basic at best.
Officials from the home and railway ministries said at least 4.5 million workers had migrated home from economic hubs in the two months since Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a lockdown.
On Tuesday, India had recorded a total 145,380 infections and a death toll of 4,167, low figures for the world's second-most populous country when compared with some countries in Europe.
But the eastern state of Bihar registered more than 160 infections on Monday, its highest one-day rise, taking its tally to more than 2,700 cases. In the past 36 hours, more than 75 people tested positive in Odisha and 35 in three isolation homes in the desert state of Rajasthan.
The latest cases have forced authorities to stretch limited testing resources.
"Dozens of laborers who traveled from New Delhi have tested positive. We are ensuring that no one enters their village with this infection," said Gaurav Sinha, a senior health official in Bihar's capital, Patna.
Economists studying reverse migration patterns said India's poorest migrant laborers have been the worst hit by the lockdown. TV footage early in the crisis showed police beating migrant workers as they tried to board city buses to reach their villages, making a mockery of social distancing.
On May 1, the government responded to rising public opposition to the migrant crisis by allowing special trains to take workers back to their home states.
But millions of workers without jobs or money are still waiting to reach home.
"The migrant crisis exposes the spatial fault-lines of India's development," wrote Sai Balakrishnan, an assistant professor at Harvard University, in the Mint newspaper.
-reuters-
Angry protests erupted in one of India's poorest states Tuesday over the deaths of more than 100 children from a mysterious brain fever potentially linked to lychees.
So far this month 103 children, mostly under 10 and malnourished, have died from Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in the Muzaffarpur area of the eastern state of Bihar.
The toll may rise with dozens more children undergoing treatment in packed hospital wards, where television pictures showed several children to a bed.
On Tuesday, dozens of people gathered outside the main hospital in Muzaffarpur to accuse local authorities of acting too slowly and of not caring.
The state's health minister came in for particular flak after asking reporters about the score in India's cricket match against Pakistan on Sunday during a news conference on the crisis.
"Bihar's Health Minister Mangal Pandey seems more worried about cricket score than the death of children," tweeted Randeep Surjewala of the opposition Congress party.
Rabri Devi, another opposition figure, called the deaths "cold-blooded murder."
"Children are dying because of a lack of medicines and treatment," she tweeted.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was due Tuesday to visit the state-run Sri Krishna Medical College, where most of the children have died.
Media have been barred from entering the facility and the families of sick children asked not to crowd the premises.
OUTBREAKS OCCUR ANNUALLY
AES sets in rapidly and is characterized by plummeting blood sugar, high fever, convulsions and paralysis. Its causes include viruses, bacteria and toxins transmitted in different ways.
Outbreaks have occurred annually during summer months in the same districts since 1995, typically coinciding with the lychee season.
Apart from 2014 when a record 150 children died, the annual death toll is usually much lower.
Several years ago US researchers said the brain disease could be linked to a toxic substance found in lychees, the tropical fruit.
They also said more study was needed to uncover the cause of the illness, known locally as Chamki Bukhar, which is fatal in a third of cases.
The National Human Rights Commission has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government -- as well as Kumar's state authorities -- to say if there had been a "possible flaw" in implementation of vaccination and awareness programs.
An editorial in the Hindu newspaper Tuesday said the deaths could have "easily been prevented with some foresight and early care."
It said in 2014 an Indo-US expert team had saved 74 percent of sick children through a simple medical intervention.
"It is appalling that this year the government failed to raise awareness on this strategy."
Bihar is one of India's poorest states and home to almost 100 million people. It has also been hit by a heatwave in recent weeks with temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius.
Most of the children affected by the brain fever belong to poor families who struggle to get even a square meal and often gorge themselves on the free-growing lychees on an empty stomach.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Severe monsoon flooding has killed 213 people in western India, an official said Sunday, as rescuers continue to sift through villages devastated by torrential rains.
The death toll in Gujarat state jumped from Wednesday's total of 123 as waters recede from low-lying areas, allowing workers to reach remote spots where bodies are starting to appear.
"The death toll in Gujarat this monsoon has risen to 213," A.J Shah, director of relief operations with the Gujarat government, told AFP.
Overwhelmed authorities, who expect the toll to rise still further, said they have struggled to cope with the number of bodies needing identification and post-mortems, resulting in delays in confirming the latest deaths.
An official at the state's emergency control room explained that "only after a post-mortem is conducted we can officially confirm death of a person".
"Since many bodies were found, postmortem took time hence the sudden jump in numbers," the official, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
The rise comes after rescuers plucked 25 bodies, including 17 members of a single family, on Wednesday from two submerged villages in hard-hit Banaskantha district of Gujarat.
Rescue workers have moved close to 130,000 people from low-lying, dangerous areas as helicopters and boats try to reach those still stranded.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who surveyed the devastation across Gujarat from the skies last week, in his radio show on Sunday reassured flood-hit states that all help was being provided to them.
As well as Gujarat, the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have been hard-hit by monsoon flooding, while pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar have also been affected.
In Assam at least 77 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been underway since April. Tens of thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
