Exodus of people from other states, especially Maharashtra the country’s COVID-19 hotspot with over 30,000 cases, to their native villages and towns in Tamil Nadu has led to a fresh wave of infections in the southern state, whose Coronavirus tally has now crossed 11,000.
As many as 256 persons who returned from abroad and other states have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week with 216 of them from Maharashtra alone. Nine who returned from Gujarat, three from Karnataka, two each from Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, three from Telangana, two from Qatar, four from Kuwait, six from the Maldives, five from Malaysia, and four from Bangladesh have also tested positive for the virus.
Of the 216 who tested positive after returning from Maharashtra, 91 are from Tirunelveli district, Thoothukudi (30), Sivaganga (14) Kallakurichi (28) and Madurai (13) among others. District administrations have erected check-posts on the borders and have kept quarantine centers ready to collect swab samples of those returning from other states. Every person returning from other states and abroad are tested for COVID-19.
People returning from Maharashtra testing positive
Though migrant workers and others from states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have also returned, people coming from Maharashtra are testing positive in more numbers when compared to other states, sources said. They attributed the trend to the number of cases in Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai, which has over 18,000 cases.
Admitting that handling a new set of infections discovered in those returning from other states is a challenge, Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar said the government was prepared to handle the situation as it has required infrastructure.
Thousands of people from across Tamil Nadu, particularly in the southern districts of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi, who had migrated to Mumbai and its suburbs are returning back to their native villages and are being quarantined at facilities set up by the district administrations.
“We have been discouraging people who have settled here in Mumbai not to leave for Tamil Nadu and encouraging only migrant workers to register for passes. People from Tamil Nadu run idli and dosa shops across Mumbai and several of them are returning to their home states as they currently live in cramped accommodation and fear for the spread of the virus,” Sridhar Tamilan of Mumbai Vizhithezhu Iyakkam, told DH from Mumbai.
Since Dharavi, Asia's biggest slum where Tamils are a sizeable chunk, has over 1,000 cases, Sridhar said, most people want to leave their small houses and go to their native villages because there is no facility to ensure social distance at home and in public areas here.
He added that people like have been helping migrant workers and students and get e-pass for their travel and to follow safety precautions like wearing a mask, using hand sanitizers.
Districts keep a vigil
People from other states, especially Maharashtra, have come back through different modes of transport like buses, vans, and cars with valid passes and have been stopped at check-posts erected by the district administrations before being taken to quarantine facilities.
“All kinds of people like those who were working in Mumbai, who had been selling idli and dosa, labourers and who had set up small businesses are returning to their home towns and villages. We are stopping them at the check posts as it would be difficult for us to track them once they go into the villages, Thoothukudi District Collector Sandeep Nanduri told DH.
The district, which had 18 cases as on Saturday, has set up 15 check-posts at the borders to ensure people coming from other states are taken to quarantine facilities. “We isolate them immediately, collect swab samples and move those testing positive to hospitals and decide on the next course of action for those testing negative,” Nanduri added.
‘Challenge can be handled by TN’
Dr P Kuganantham, former Chennai city health officer and senior epidemiologist, told DH that it is “tenable” to handle the challenge.
“These are potential carriers of COVID-19 and we are testing every person who comes to our state from other states. Testing, isolating, and treating positive patients and quarantine those turning negative will ensure they do not infect anyone with the virus if they are carriers. We need to be extra cautious in handling people who come from abroad and other states,” Kuganantham, part of the expert panel advising the Tamil Nadu government, said.
Kallakurichi district collector Kiran Gurrala told DH that hundreds of labourers and others who were working in different numbers have come back to their villages in the past few days. “The number of people returning from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are much more when compared to Maharashtra, those testing are mostly people who returned from the Western state,” Gurrala said.
Like the Koyambedu cluster, which led to a spike in the number of cases in several districts including Kallakurichi, this will also lead to an upward swing before it comes down, he added. 14 people who returned from Maharashtra tested positive in the district alone on Saturday.
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