UP and Bihar step up testing amid reverse migration

New Delhi | Lucknow: UP and Bihar have stepped up testing as well as increased the number of beds for Covid-19 patients as the return of millions of migrant workers to their native states has led to a surge in active cases. “Return of migrants is a challenge,” UP’s health minister Jai Pratap Singh told ET. He said the number of isolation beds in UP has been increased to 78,500 from 52,000 and the aim is to take it to 100,000 by the end of this month. The UP government has decided to double the capacity of beds in the first-stage facilities.ET has accessed an order which said preparations be done to have at least 50,000 such beds ready from 25,000 at present, including identifying colleges, schools, hostels and government buildings for such purpose. “With cases increasing daily and most of them being asymptomatic, districts can see a sudden surge in cases. Hence, to deal with any situation, we have to prepare 25,000 extra beds,” UP’s principal secretary (health) Amit Mohan Prasad said in an order.UP has more than 2,000 active cases, 1,230 of them being returning workers. More than 800 cases have been reported in the past three days, with testing to positive rate for migrants at 22%. In Bihar too, the majority of the active cases are of returning workers, said officials. Out of 1,900 positive cases, which have tripled from 630 on May 10, 999 migrants have tested positive so far. The Nitish government has decided to distribute 41,000 VTM kits to aid RT-PCR testing in various districts — about 6,700 such kits have been distributed so far. Bihar has expanded its daily testing capacity to 2,800 from about 2,000 till a few days ago. However, only about 52,000 tests have been done so far in Bihar.

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