Amid rise in coronavirus cases and lockdown across the country, the Centre as well as state governments are facing challenges in identifying people who had returned from abroad in last few months.
As per an official, the government is looking for 30,000 people who had come in India but they are not in its watch list.
On Friday, the government had indicated the states about such major mistake. Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba informed the state governments that over 15 lakh people had come to India in last two months. But there appears to be a gap between the actual monitoring for COVID-19 and total arrivals.
In a letter to chief secretaries of all states and Union territories, the Cabinet Secretary on Saturday said such a gap in monitoring of international passengers may jeopardise the efforts to contain the spread of novel coronavirus, given that many amongst the persons who have tested positive for the virus so far in India have a history of international travel.
Recently, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amrinder Singh had said few of NRIs who have come from foreign nations are missing. Many states have said that they are facing problem in tracing people who have returned from abroad.
A senior official from Bihar said, “We got information that some people from Qatar have come but when we reached the destination which is 30 km away from Patna, we found no one there.”
The locals said that the relatives have hidden them.
In an effort to curb the menace, the government is constantly appealing to the people to keep informing the administration and stay isolated for prescribed period.
In the case of singer Kanika Kapoor same thing had happened. She did not keep herself in isolation and later found her of positive case.
In Bihar too, a woman had travel history of Saudi Arabia and she did not reveal to anyone. First the doctor got infected and then she found of positive case.
India saw a surge in coronavirus cases as the number jumped to 873 on Saturday, including 19 deaths, with Maharashtra and Gujarat registering more infections.
The rise came even as the country is in the midst of a 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to curb the spread of the infection.
Around 6,00,000 people around the world have now contracted the new coronavirus.
Over 83,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the US, higher than China, Italy or any other country has seen.
The US has recorded 1,178 deaths, while the global death toll stood at 23,293
