About 200 people have been quarantined after they came in contact with 14 coronavirus positive migrant workers who came from five states to Chhattisgarh on Sunday. Three more migrants were detected positive in Surajpur four days ago, taking the total to 17.

Out of those 14, eight tested positive for Covid-19 in Durg district, while the six others are from Kabirdham district. All are migrant workers and are admitted to the AIIMS in Raipur.

As per the officials, all these workers got to their respective districts in the last ten days by hitchhiking.

“About 200 people who came into direct and indirect contact with the Covid-19 positive migrant labourers are quarantined. We are scanning all the other details of these patients and more people would be quarantined in a couple of days,” Ajay Yadav, superintendent of police, told Hindustan Times.

The SP further said that the eight labourers who were found in Durg district came from Nagpur, Mumbai, Gondia, Ahmedabad and from the cities in West Bengal and Odisha.

“They came from four states – including Maharashtra, Odisha , Gujarat and West Bengal – through various means in the last seven days. On May 1, samples of these labourers were collected by the health department and they tested positive on Sunday,” said Durg SP.

The state health minister’s office said that about 900 migrants have been tested, out which 17 are Covid-19 positive.

The district administration claimed that they are keeping a tab on movement of each and every labourer. “All labourers who are coming from outside are quarantined and they are being tested,” said the SP.

Chhattisgarh health department has given instructions to all collectors of 28 districts to conduct health tests on each and every migrant entering the district.

“Out of the six persons who tested positive in Kabirdham district, five came from Hyderabad where they used to work as labourers. They claimed they reached Kabirdham on foot and were quarantined at the border while one person came from Nagpur,” said collector Kabirdham Avanish Sharan.

He further said that for the last 15 days, anyone entering in the district was quarantined.

“In these camps we were conducting random testing. All the patients who are tested positive in my district are asymptomatic,” said the officer, adding that migrants are being tested continuously.

As per the data of the health department, the total number of Covid-19 cases has risen to 57 in the state till Sunday, of which, 36 were discharged following their recovery.

“Out of these 56 patients, total 17 are migrant labourers who reached in the state from different states. All these migrant labourers were found positive in the last seven days,” said a senior health official, adding that all are admitted in AIIMS Raipur.