Bihar: Quarantine only for migrants from 11 cities

PATNA: The state government has tweaked the quarantine protocol for migrants to specify that only those coming from 11 high-risk cities — Surat, Ahmadebad, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurugram, Noida, Kolkata and Bengaluru — will be kept at the block quarantine centres. For others, the district magistrate concerned will take the call.
Chief secretary Deepak Kumar told TOI on Saturday that these 11 cities have been kept in ‘A’ category and all migrant workers coming from there will have to be put in mandatory institutional quarantine. “For those coming from other cities, the DMs will decide whether to put them in institutional quarantine or allow them home quarantine. It will also depend on availability of space at the facilities,” the chief secretary said.
He added, “Taking into account large number of positive cases from ‘A’ category cities, it has been instructed that to maintain social distancing at the quarantine centres, not more than two persons in a room or four persons in a hall be allowed.”
Kumar clarified that those coming on flights, or their own vehicles or on purchased rail tickets will be allowed home quarantine.
A letter in this regard was also issued by the disaster management department principal secretary, Pratyaya Amrit, to all DMs, SSP’s and SP’s on Friday. The letter states that only migrants coming from ‘A’ category cities be put in 14-day quarantine at the block-level centres. Only after the block level facilities get filled, they will be kept to panchayat quarantines. And after completing the mandatory quarantine period, they will be allowed to go home if they are not symptomatic and remain under home quarantine for another seven days.
The letter also directed that migrant workers from ‘B’ category cities be allowed to go under home quarantine if they are asymptomatic. Such migrants will also have to submit a self-attested affidavit promising they will follow the quarantine norms at home.
Earlier, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi with maximum positive cases of migrants were put in ‘A’ category and those coming from these places had to be put in block level quarantine centres. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu were in ‘B’ category and migrants coming from these places could be kept at block or panchayat-level quarantine centres. Those coming from the rest of the states were in ‘C’ category and could be allowed to stay in village quarantine.
A district magistrate said those who are already in quarantine centres even with travel history from ‘B’ category cites will continue to stay there and the new norm will be applied only on those who enter Bihar now.