Six more migrant workers of Harishchandrapur, who reached Malda from Ajmer by the first Shramik Special train, have tested positive for Covid- 19. The new cases have taken the number of cases in Malda to 13. The district administration has already declared Harishchandrapur a containment zone after 10 persons were found infected in one gram panchayat.

The district is preparing to receive more migrants from Telengana. District officials have, however, said that the new batch of migrant workers may be kept at block quarantine centers instead of their homes unlike in the previous cases.

“A total of 2733 tests have been conducted in the laboratory at the Malda Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) so far, and 16, including three North Dinajpur cases, have been found positive. Fifty-six other reports are awaited,” MMCH sources said. According to Malda District Magistrate Rajarshi Mitra, they are taking all necessary steps to receive the migrants from Telengana.

“The exact number of them is yet to be confirmed and Harishchandrapur is a containment zone now,” he said. Migrant workers detained: In North Dinajpur, 91 migrant workers of different villages of the district, and some from South Dinajpur and Dhubri in Assam were detained at Sonapur in Chopra and some other places under the Islampur police station today.

While some workers were on foot, some were on bicycles on National Highway-31, sources said. “Police have detained them and arranged for food and medical screening. They will soon be sent to their villages for home quarantine,” sources said.

North Dinajpur yesterday reported three Covid-19 patients, the first cases in the district that was until now in the ‘green zone.’The Superintendent of Police of the Islampur Police district, Sachin Makkar, said, “We detained 91 migrant workers today. Most of them have returned from Rajasthan and Maharastra. Twenty-eight of them are residents of Dhubri in Assam. We are contacting the Dhubri Police for the return of the 28.”

Six migrants held:

In South Dinajpur, six migrant workers, including a woman, were detained by the police near Hili More in Balurghat today. They were headed for Hili after returning from Kotamar in Jharkhand. It is learnt that they walked back to the district for six days.

The Balurghat police have sent them to a quarantine facility in Balurghat. Kurseong pharmacies reopen: In Kurseong in Darjeeling, two medicine shops that had been closed by the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration on 2 May reopened today.

The development came after a doctor of the Kurseong Sub-divisional Hospital and three other persons, including a nurse, tested negative for Covid-19.The doctor had returned from Kolkata and had checked some patients in the two pharmacies.

He had travelled to Siliguri from Kolkata in a bus with a doctor of the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital who has tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Central Bank of India, Kurseong branch, which is located on the 2nd floor of the building housing the medicine shops, also resumed operations today after it was disinfected.

On the other hand, GTA Chairman Anit Thapa has thanked chief minister Mamata Banerjee for allotting a Covid-19 hospital for the Hills. The state government and the GTA are working to ready the first Covid hospital for the Hills at Triveni in Kalimpong district.

Cooch Behar workers go home:

Meanwhile, around 90 residents of Cooch Behar district, mostly daily wage earners, who were stranded in Kalimpong due the lockdown, were today provided buses to take them back.

Four buses were provided by the district administration to take the workers back to their home district. The 90 who had been staying in Kalimpong block 1 and 2, boarded the buses at the Mela Ground where they were also provided food in the morning, along with packet lunch for their trip.

A similar provision has been made for people from Alipurduar and Uttar Dinajpur stranded in Kalimpong. They will be sent back home tomorrow. Those from Malda, Murshidabad and Siliguri will also be sent back on Tuesday.

Patient discharged:

A Covid- 19 patient from Cooch Behar district was today discharged from the Dr Chang’s (Covid) hospital in Siliguri. So far, 18 Covid patients have been released from the health facility in the last one-and-a-half months. Six patients are currently admitted there.