BERHAMPUR: Even as the Ganjam administration is ramping up measures to deal with the sudden spike in Covid cases, the rise in migrant returnees across the district for last one week has posed an additional challenge.
While both the upcoming rural elections and Covid scare are being attributed to their sudden influx, the threat of virus spread has only mounted as most returnees have reportedly been showing flu-like symptoms but not following safety norms.
According to unofficial sources, over 7,000 migrants have returned to Ganjam from Surat, Mumbai and Kerala during last one week. Voicing their reluctance to get themselves tested for Covid, some of the migrants shared that they were allowed to go home after thermal screening at the railway station but do not want to get RT-PCR done.
This comes at a time when the administration is making tall claims about taking measures to keep the infections at bay. In the last two waves of the pandemic, Ganjam was in a spot of bother as over 7 lakh people from the district work outside the State and their return in large numbers during lockdown posed a major problem. Now, the district faces a similar situation as Omicron cases are surging and to top it, the panchayat elections are scheduled next month.
Over the years, migrants have been playing an important role in vote-bank politics for the urban polls. Sources said, the returnees were wooed by leaders of political parties to come back at this time as the civic body elections will follow the rural poll and many of them have earlier worked as henchmen of various rural leaders.
On the day, over 700 migrants returned from Surat and Mumbai, of which 400 alighted at Berhampur railway station and the rest at Chhatrapur, Khalikote and Rambha. But no arrangements were in place for their testing despite claims of preparedness by the administration. Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said, “We have received information of returnees and will test them accordingly. Officials across the district have been alerted.” Meanwhile, Ganjam reported 139 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours and Gajapati 135.
In Puri, 12 Covid Care Centres have been reactivated in the district. Bed strength too has been increased. Jagannath Medical College, Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) and Gopabandhu Ayurveda Medical Colleges are equipped with ICUs and ventilators. The district reported 198 new cases on Saturday.