Seven migrant workers who returned from Maharashtra test COVID-19 positive in Uttar Pradesh

In a scare for the Uttar Pradesh government a day before the arrival of the 'Shramik Special' train with migrant workers here from Nashik, as many as seven migrant workers, who had recently returned from Maharashtra, tested positive for coronavirus.

According to the sources, all these migrant workers, who had reached Basti district, about 200 kilometres from here a few days back, have been quarantined at a community health centre.

''This is the first cluster case of COVID 19 in the returning migrant workers in the state,'' said a health official here on Saturday.

Earlier five migrant workers had tested positive for COVID-19 in different parts in the state.

Follow latest updates on the COVID-19 pandemic here

The first 'Shramik Special' train carrying 839 migrant workers would be arriving at Lucknow railway station from Nashik in Maharashtra on Sunday.

These migrant workers would be sent to their destinations from buses from the railway station after the screening, sources here said.

The cases of COVID-19 among the migrant workers have set off alarm bells in the authorities here, who suspect that there may be coronavirus positive cases among the returning the migrant workers.

UP government has made plans to ferry around ten lakh stranded migrant workers home from different parts in the country, especially Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana and Punjab.

Several buses carrying migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh have already reached the state in the past couple of days.

Around two lakh migrant workers and their families, who included both residents of the state and Bihar, had arrived in different parts in the state after the first lockdown was declared. The arrivals continued in the second lockdown as well.

So far 2455 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the state. As many as 43 people have died from the infection.