Explained: Migrants' 'ghar wapsi' behind COVID-19 spike in India?

New Delhi, May 25: Monday is the fourth-straight day that India has reported the biggest one-day rise in the number, with 6,977 new infections, reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,38,845, while the death toll rose to 4,021.

The number of active COVID-19 cases climbed to 77,103 while 57,720 people have recovered and one patient has migrated.

The death toll from the fatal disease rose to 4,021 after 154 people died between Sunday and Monday morning.

The latest 10,000 infections were recorded in two days. India recorded its first 10,000 COVID-19 cases in nearly 43 days, with a wave of infections beginning in March after three isolated cases were first reported in Kerala in January.

But more than these statistics, one important aspect, which could be a major cause of concern, is the sharp increase in positive cases among the migrants who have arrived from different parts of the state.

The best example is Kerala. The state, which had gone down below 20, and did not report even a single new case in a day, now has 847 confirmed infections.

322 of which are active cases, all of these having been discovered after May 10 when a fresh surge began in the state following the influx of people from abroad and also from other states.

With the increase in cases causing a big worry to the state. The increase in cases was not due to relaxations in lockdown, but because many Keralites from abroad and other states were returning, Vijayan had said.

Kerala has had almost 250 new infections, in the past one week. Out of 53 that were found to be positive on Sunday, 30 came from other states, mostly from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

The state had registered only three deaths of Coronavirus patients till May 21, the lowest case fatality ratio in the country for a state with significant caseload, but after that, three more deaths have been reported.

There have been spurt in numbers even in Odisha. The state reported over 100 cases on Sunday, again mostly amongst migrants or their direct contacts. About 1,450 people in the state have tested positive till now.

Bihar also emerged as COVID-19 hotspot in the country, as its positive case having jumped from less than 700 on May 10 to over 2,500 now. A majority of the new cases are people who have travelled from other places.

A nationwide lockdown has been in place in India since March 25 and will continue at least till May 31, though several relaxations have been given in the ongoing fourth phase that began earlier this week on May 18. Besides, domestic flights are also scheduled to resume in a phased manner from Monday.

Special migrant trains are already running since May 1 in which nearly 36 lakh stranded migrants have been ferried so far. A schedule has been drawn up to operate 2,600 such trains over the next 10 days too and they will take further 36 lakh people to their home states.