PATNA: With the total count of COVID-19 positive cases rising past 4400 with twenty eight death including the two persons on Thursday, the rural areas in Bihar have reported more positive cases than the urban areas .
The number of COVID-19 positive cases in the state started increasing after May 1 with the return of migrant labourers by the Shramik special trains.
Baffled over the rural areas developing as the hotspots of COVID-19, officials of the health department are now focussing on door-to-door screening in the rural areas for the second consecutive rounds to trace out the new suspected cases.
According to official figures, the number of migrant-labourers tested positive has now reached 3,187 among the total number of 4,422 positive cases till date.
"Only 1235 other people have tested positive just because of them either being family members of infected persons or randomly got infected while coming in contact with COVID-19 asymptomatic persons", a senior official of the health department said.
Alarmed at this growing positive cases from rural areas, screening of all those who have been quarantined at homes has also started on a mission mode.
"So far,4.72 lakhs of people are in home quarantine and 196 out of them have been diagnosed with symptoms of cough fever and shortness in breathing", the official statement of health department claimed.
Meanwhile, 2121 positive cases have recovered and 88313 samples have already been tested so far in the state.
Madhubani district reported 196 positive cases mostly from the rural areas after May 1 while other districts like Darbhanga, Saharsa, Supaul, Begusarai, Nawada, Patna (rural), Purnea, Katihar, West and East Champaran together, Gopalganj, Gaya, Munger, Bhagalpur, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Aurangabad, Jehanabad and others started witnessing rise in the positive cases after May 1 when the trains carrying migrant-labourers started amid the outbreak.
Official sources admitted that positive cases would continue rising in the unlock down period because of movements of public transportation and other activities.
The highest number of 758 migrant-labourers tested positive returned from Delhi followed by 756 from Maharashtra, 505 from Gujarat, 276 from Haryana, 184 from UP, 127 from Rajasthan, 110 from West Bengal, 108 from Telengana, 97 from Punjab and rest from other states.
"Around 99% of total migrant-labourers tested positive belong to rural areas of the state and they have spread infection among their family members", disclosed an official on condition of anonymity.
On Thursday also, out of the 53 new positive cases, nearly 45 are from rural areas.
According to figures, Patna has reported the highest number of 265 positive cases of Covid 19 with 80 of them from rural areas followed by 256 from Khagaria, 250 from Begusarai, 208 from Rohtas, 201 from Madhubani, 195 from Bhagalpur, 163 from Jehanabad, 156 from Katihar, 158 from Munger and other districts.
Manoj Kumar, executive director of Bihar State Health Society (BSHS), admitted that the samples for pool testing of COVID-19 are taken mostly from rural areas where the migrant-labourers are under home quarantine.
"So definitely, the ratio of positive cases tested is higher from rural areas than the urban ones", he said but denied that community transmission has started.