STUCK BY COVID Of 3.2 lakh who returned home in J&K, 2 lakh arrived by road

TNN Bureau. Updated: 8/6/2020 11:21:37 AM Front Page

Everyone tested, travellers 20% of all positives

JAMMU: Stuck up elsewhere in the country and abroad since March 25, when all modes of long route public transport including air and rail were suspended, 3.2 lakh people have returned to Jammu and Kashmir.
While controlled train services were initiated in April to evacuate the stranded residents, flights were resumed on May 25 and their operation still remains limited.
A breakdown of statistics suggests that highest number of people returned by road, this was followed by those who took flights to return. Travel by train has remained the least preferred mode of returning to Jammu and Kashmir.
Each of 3.2 lakh people returning by road, air or train have gone through the test for coronavirus and only 4683 of them tested positive, which makes a fifth of the Covid-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir.
Of 3.2 lakh who returned to Jammu and Kashmir since the earlier relaxation in lockdown, 29,963 had arrived at the Jammu airport till August 4 and 48,680 in Srinagar airport. A total of 41,680 arrived at the railway station in Jammu while the rest came by road.
Among those who returned also included 25,000 non-J&K migrant workers, out of the 40,000, who had left Jammu and Kashmir after the coronavirus outbreak.
A total of 3.2 lakh people, including the migrant workers, arrived in Jammu and Kashmir from outside since the nationwide lockdown came into effect on March 25, and all of them were subjected to COVID-19 tests.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the nationwide lockdown for the first time, migrant workers staying in different parts of the country became desperate to leave for their native places.
Due to the non-availability of transportation at that time, many of them had started returning home on foot, creating a humanitarian crisis. Later, the central government started 'Shramik Special' trains for the transportation of the migrant workers.
Jammu and Kashmir has carried out COVID-19 tests of these 3.2 lakh people, including the migrant workers, who have returned to the UT.
"Jammu and Kashmir is the only state which is carrying out COVID-19 test under the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method," spokesperson of the Jammu and Kashmir government Rohit Kansal said.
"We are doing the highest testing and our mortality is lowest," he said.
Jammu and Kashmir has so far done a total of 6.63 lakh testing.
Testing for per million people is 50,853. The mortality rate in the Union Territory is 1.9 per cent.


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