UP faces uphill task of monitoring each returnee for Covid-19 symptoms

Lucknow: Faced with reverse migration of close to a lakh workers, Uttar Pradesh government has an uphill task of monitoring each returnee for Covid-19 symptoms, even as the tally of positive cases in the state shot up to more than 70 on Sunday.

“However, among all the cases reported so far, none of them required any kind of intensive care. Fourteen have undergone regular treatment and have been discharged. Meanwhile, we are planning to buy 200 more ventilators from HAL,” UP principal secretary (health) Amit Mohan Prasad said in a briefing.

Prasad said the state government has received private interest in setting up dedicated hospitals for treatment of Covid-19 patients.


After the Centre asked states to make immediate arrangements for labourers, UP has decided to set up quarantine facilities at lodges and hostels. It has asked district magistrates to make sure that all workers returning from other states are made to undergo thermal screening and quarantined at these facilities for the requisite period before being taken to their houses/villages.

The state government has also asked brick kilns owners to resume operations and make arrangements for such returnees on the fields while ensuring proper social distancing. Besides, the government said more than 2,000 factory units across the states have also been asked to make arrangements for the stay of workers in and around their premises.

Three cities — Noida, Lucknow and Ghaziabad — have issued advisories to landlords to not take rent from labourers, students and other factory workers. Any violation will be subject to action, additional secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi said.

With a spurt in Covid-19 cases in Noida and Ghaziabad, a senior government official has been sent to monitor the situation in the cities.