Migrant labourer screened in Bengal ....Many of them were asked to stay in isolation at home and under community surveillance.

TT , 23.03.20,  Krishnagar , Malda and Behrampore: Authorities started screening of migrant workers on Sunday to check for symptoms of Covid-19, particularly in districts like Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda which send a substantial number of people to other states for day wage jobs.

Police personnel, along with health workers, asked such passengers to get off buses and trucks and took them to nearby hospitals for screening in Nadia, Malda and Murshidabad districts.

Even though no suspected symptoms of Covid-19 had been found among the migrant labourers, many of them were asked to stay in isolation at home and under community surveillance.

In Nadia, around 300 workers who returned from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were screened on Sunday at Tehatta and Krishnagar. Screening was done at Tarapur hospital in Murshidabad’s Samserganj also.

In Malda, workers were screened at the railway station and the bus terminus. Sources said around 2,000 people had been screened so far. Among them, 165 are in home quarantine while six are kept at the isolation ward of the Malda Medical College and Hospital.

A police officer who was seen stopping buses at the PWD crossing on Karimpur state highway of Nadia, said: “We first found out from where passengers arrived and took those who came from outside to hospital for medical screening.”

Nadia district magistrate Vibhu Goel said the screening was not just for migrant workers but for anybody coming from Covid-19 affected states or countries.

Rajarshi Mitra, the district magistrate of Malda, said medical screenings would continue till Monday afternoon. “Once the lockdown is enforced, all entry points to the district would be sealed.”

Twenty-eight workers returning from Karnataka were quarantined at Santragachi station on Saturday.