UP CM Yogi claims 75% of Mumbai returnees positive

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has said in a web address that 75 percent migrant workers who returned from Mumbai and 50 percent of the workers coming back from Delhi were infected with COVID-19. “Over 75 percent workers who returned from Mumbai are infected. Almost half of those who had come from Delhi are positive. About 25-30 percent of the 25 lakh migrant workers who had returned from other states are infected with the disease,” Yogi claimed. The 30 percent of 25 lakh translates into a staggering 7.5 lakh cases.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Statistics, UP has recorded 6,268 Covid-19 cases till Monday. The webinar link, which was a FB live, was shared late night Sunday by official twitter handle of UP CM which was retweeted by the UP government with a caption -- CM speaking at a webinar "Corona Time: Alertness to Success". It didn't mention who had hosted the webinar and for whom. Sources said it was organised by the RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya,though FPJ could not corroborate the claim till late at night.

The CM spoke for about 38 minutes explaining the steps taken by his government during the pandemic. In the webinar, Yogi also explained the challenges before the state government. “Such a huge number of cases also poses a big challenge beforeus.Over 75,000 personnel are conducingmedical screening of workers.”

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhitook toTwitter onMonday to condemnthe Chief Minister's statement that people returning to the state from other states were raising the number of coronavirus cases and asked him to share the testing and infection data with full transparency. "The UP CM says 75 per cent of the returnees from Maharashtra, 50 per cent from Delhi and 25 per cent from other states have tested Covid-19 positive.

Does he mean that there are more than 10 lakh people affected by Covid-19 in the state?” Priyanka said in a series of tweets. She also asked, “What's the basis of the statistics cited by him? Where did this percentage of returned migrants come from?” If there was some truth in the Chief Minister's statement then the state government should share the testing and infectiondata withthe public, she said and added,it should also tell us about the preparations to control the infection.

The migrant workers have been returning from the Shramik special trains since May 1. UP has received the maximum number of these special trains, ferrying stranded workers, students, tourists and pilgrims. Several of them have tested positive over the last few days. Some have even died due to the disease on the way, in the quarantine centres or in the hospitals.