Protocol not followed, 113 test +ve
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 21: The influx of non-local labourers in Kashmir at a time when there is lock-down due to spike in the COVID-19 positive cases is posing a major threat of more spike as administration is not following proper protocol in case of these labourers as is being followed for other travellers.
Deputy Commissioner Anantnag, K K Sidha told Excelsior that for last six days around 15000 labourers arrived in Kashmir, mostly working in brick kilns. “These labourers are being brought by the brick kiln owners with proper permission from the Government and any one coming without permission is being sent back”, he added.
“We get 60-70 bus load of labourers daily and so far 9000 test results have arrived and 113 tested positive. The result of others is awaited”, the DC said.
The brick kiln labourers started arriving in Kashmir in large numbers from July 14. As per officials on July 14, 2227 on July 15, 2099, on July 16, 2350, on July 17, 2893, on July 18, 2000, on July 19, 2000 and 1421 on July 20 arrived in Kashmir in buses.
An official said that majority of these labourers are from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab where Corona positive cases are around 30,000,50,000 and over 10,000 respectively.
As per the protocol, all the passengers arriving in J&K by train, air or road have to be tested and sent to 14 days quarantine. All travellers are to be sent to paid or Government facility quarantine till test report. The positives are sent to hospital and COVID-19 negatives to home quarantine for 14 days.
Majority of these labourers are arriving in Budgam where they are directly sent to brick kilns for work. An official said that no protocol is being followed as hundreds of such labourers are living in insanitary conditions without social distance. The infected labourers are working with others posing a major risk of spread of infection among the labourers.
Chief Medical Officer Budgam, Dr Tajamul Hussain, told Excelsior that during last two days 91 of these labourers who arrived recently tested positive for the COVID-19. He said that their contact tracing will be done and contacts will be tested for Coronavirus.
However, an official at Budgam said that the contact tracing of these labourers is a challenging task as they live together without social distancing and the conditions in these kilns are unhygienic. He said that bringing of such huge number of labourers is a major risk as it could lead further spike in the Coronavirus cases in Kashmir.
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