Odisha's Kandhamal reports first Covid-19 case, four tribal districts still untouched by virus

BHUBANESWAR: With two maiden cases being reported from tribal dominated Kandhamal district on Monday, the coronavirus so far has spared seven districts of Odisha out of which four are tribal region, which usually don’t grapple with the problem of migration.
Migration prone districts which have witnessed sudden rise in Covid positive cases due to migrant returnees.
The four tribal districts are Rayagada, Gajapati, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur.There may be people of these districts working outside the state, mostly youths, but their number is very less and there is no trend of labourers of these districts going in groups to south Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana for brick making.
“In the days to come, there may be a few corona cases in the five tribal districts, which are yet to report any but the cases shouldn’t swell like Ganjam, Jajpur, Bhadrak or Balasore. Youths from the tribal districts go solo (alone) unlike the brick making migrants, who go with the family. They mostly work in construction sites in Kerala, Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu,” said Umi Daniel, a researcher on migration dynamics of Odisha.
Out of the seven, three districts located in western part of the state- Bargarh, Nuapada and Sonepur, which have zero cases so far- have positive cases in their immediate neighboring districts of Sambalpur, Kalahandi and Balangir.
Sambalpur reported one case on Sunday while Balangir added two more cases to the already two active. Kalahandi had reported just one case. “The brick making migrants of western districts are yet to come to the home. Except for a minuscule number, a major chunk is still waiting for trains and buses to come. The districts have quarantine centres ready. So, it won’t be surprising if corona infection is reported among the brick making groups in the quarantine centres when they come in hordes,” Daniel observed.
There are three districts- Sambalpur, Koraput and Kalahandi- with single cases. Returning of migrant workers started on May 3, when the state had reported 162 cases. “Since May 3 till Saturday, 21 districts reported positive cases in quick succession, all due to migrants. With Sambalpur reporting one on Sunday, 22 districts now are affected. So far, Odisha has received close to 1,40,000 migrants with maximum coming to Ganjam.
Notably, to reduce spread of coronavirus among migrants at the quarantine centres in the villages, administration of several districts have planned to segregate migrants on the basis of the place they return from. The district authorities said the ones returned from Mumbai, a hotspot, won’t be allowed to stay in quarantine with the ones from Telengana even if they belong to one village. This will help check transmission of the virus from asymptomatic carrier (if any) to others.