Coronavirus: Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh see a drop in COVID-19 cases

New Delhi, June 16: The number of COVID-19 cases, that is announced by the Union Health Ministry, can be seen rising rapidly in the country. But Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh are seen reporting a decline in the rate of new infections.

These states have seen the rate of increase drop by nearly two per cent, giving relief to local authorities.

It can be seen that three of these states are the biggest source of migrant workers in India. The number of coronavirus cases started to swell when these workers decide to return home due to the nationwide lockdown.

Since the number of migrants returning to home states has reduced, the rate of COVID-19 spread has also slowed down in these states.

Speaking to reporters, Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav on Monday said, "Most migrant workers have reached their home destinations. We continue to coordinate with the state governments to send back remaining migrant workers."

On the other side, it can be seen that the Indian Railways has been running Shramik Special trains to ferry these migrants to their home states from different parts of the country.

In Bihar, the number of coronavirus cases increased to 6,581 on June 15 from 3,923 on June 1. But, the rate of increase was 10.81 per cent in the second week of June as compared to about 12 per cent in the first week.

According to reports, on May 1, around 2.1 million workers returned to Bihar when the Shramik Special trains started. Of them, only 2,50,000 came in two week of June.

Uttar Pradesh government's health data shows that the weekly average of increase in the coronavirus cases in the first week of June was 412 cases per day, which reduced to 356 cases per day in the second week.

In Madhya Pradesh, the number of new cases recorded has fallen from 1,424 in last week of May to 1,401 in second week of June. The reason for this is just 54,282 workers came back to the state in June as compared to over three lakh in May.