Surge of viral cases in Belagavi points to return of migrant workers

Hubballi: Panic gripped the border district of Belagavi in Karnataka after the number of coronavirus cases doubled in a single day. Seventeen positive cases were reported on Thursday alone, increasing the total to 36.

Admin sources said this is the result of migrant workers employed in Maharashtra and Goa returning to their native villages in northern Karnataka in the last few days.

Lapses in administering the quarantine facilities are being blamed for the surge.

Hundreds of migrant workers from Bengaluru have been detained while they were on their way to various parts of north India.

The alarming rise in positive cases has made it tougher for officials who have been struggling to control the spread of the virus by sealing the district borders to prevent inflow of people from Maharashtra, the biggest coronavirus hotspot in the country.

Admin officials also said most of the cases found on Thurday have a link to virus-infected persons who had attended the Tablighi Jamat congregation at Nizamuddin, New Delhi in March. Eight out of the total of 17 cases detected on Thursday belong to one single family from Hirebagawadi town. Six of them are women.

Meanwhile, Gadag deputy commissioner M G Hiremath said a friend of a virus-infected woman who had died earlier this week in Gadag has also tested positive. Due to this, officials have beefed up security arrangements surrounding the Rangawadi Galli where the deceased woman had been residing.

A one-and-half-year-old baby is among seven corona-infected persons found in Vijayapur on Thursday, increasing the total positive cases there to 17.

Officials suspect that the virus has spread to at least six persons while conducting the cremation of a corona positive person who died recently in Vijayapur district. Most of the positive cases found in North Karnataka districts of Belagavi, Vijayapur and Gadag are women.