Coronavirus Outbreak: 70,399 migrant labourers take shelter in Maharashtra's relief camps

On Day 6 of the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said that the government has set up 262 relief camps for migrant labourers where they will be provided food and shelter to them. (Pictures by Shadab Khan, Sayyed Sameer Abedi, Ashish Raje, Satej Shinde, Pradeep Dhivar/mid-day photographers)

Updated On: 2020-03-31 09:00 AM IST

With 47 new cases, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 1,071 in India on Monday, with 942 cases and leaving 29 dead, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 

With 12 positive cases reported on Monday, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra mounted to 215.

A 52-year-old COVID-19 patient, suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes died in Pune on Monday, taking the death toll due to the viral infection in the state to 10.

According to the state health ministry, a total of 39 people in Maharashtra have been discharged from hospitals so far after recovering from the novel coronavirus infection, including 14 in Mumbai.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Monday that the state government
has set up 262 relief camps for migrant labourers where they will be provided food and shelter.

Thackeray said on Twitter that the state government has set up the relief camps which is presently providing shelters to 70,399 migrant labour or the homeless people to ensure that they have food, and a roof in this crisis.

The central government on March 29 ordered the sealing of state and district borders across the country in a bid to stop community transmission of coronavirus by migrant workers, and warned that violators will face 14-day quarantine.

Since the 21-day lockdown was announced last week, there has been exodus of migrant workers from big cities as they are desperate to return to their villages after being left jobless and many of them without food or shelter.

A tempo carrying 17 migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh was intercepted by Mumbai police in Andheri.

The labourers were sent back to their respective homes after being questioned by the police. The police also arranged meals for the labourers.

The tempo has been seized by the Andheri police and a case has been registered against the tempo driver under relevant sections of the law.

Taking note of large-scale movement of migrant workers from cities to their native places on foot after the coronavirus lockdown, the Supreme Court on Moday said fear and panic is a "bigger problem than the virus", and sought a status report from the Centre by Tuesday on the measures taken to prevent the exodus.

On Monday, Worli MLA and minister Aaditya Thackeray tweeted that two colonies in his constituency were sealed, disinfected and fumigated in the early hours of Monday 

The Worli Koliwada, home to a vast fishing community, and Janata Colony are congested localities in the metropolis. Local residents said police were not allowing people to leave or enter the area.

The BMC also started a drive in the area as part of its drive to disinfect public places.

Senior Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra, announced on Monday he would give Rs 1 crore to the state Chief Minister's Relief Fund in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

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