The government has not talked about charging anything from migrant labourers as 85 per cent of the transportation cost is being borne by the railways and 15 per cent by the state government, the Centre said on Monday amid a row over the national transporter allegedly charging the workers for ferrying them home during the COVID-19-induced lockdown.
The government also said the process of transporting the stranded migrant labourers was being coordinated by states "except for one or two states".
Asked if the migrant labourers were being charged for being ferried home, Joint Secretary at the health ministry Lav Agarwal said that as far as migrant labourers are concerned, the guidelines have clearly stated that under the infectious disease management, one should stay where he or she is.
"Based on the request given from states for particular cases, permission was given to run special trains. Be it the government of India or the Railways, we have not talked about charging from workers. Eighty-five per cent of the transportation cost is borne by the Railways, while the state has to bear 15 per cent of the cost," he told reporters.
"Based on the request of the states the process that started, under which limited number of stranded migrant labourers have to be transported for a particular reason, is being coordinated by the state governments, except for one or two states," Agarwal said.
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The restrictions in the country after May 3 should not be seen as "lockdown 3.0" but as "easing 2.0", he said.
A political slugfest broke out on Monday over the issue of 'homecoming' of migrants with opposition Congress offering to pay for the travel of the stranded workers, and the BJP hitting back, saying the railwayswas already bearing 85 per cent of the travel cost and only 15 per cent was being taken from the state governments..
At the daily briefing on the COVID-19 situation, he also said that in the last 24 hours, 1,074 COVID-19 patients have recovered, the highest number of recoveries in one day.
The recovery rate stands at 27.52 per cent with 11,706 COVID-19 patients cured till now, he said.
The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,389 and the total number of cases climbed to 42,836 in the country on Monday, registering an increase of 83 deaths and a record jump of 2,573 cases in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 29,685, while 11,761 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.
However, according to a PTI tally based on reports from the states, the total number of cases was 43,658 and the death toll stood at 1,413 on Monday.
There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.
Agarwal said that the COVID-19 curve is relatively flat as of now and it was not right to talk in terms of when the peak would come.
"If we collectively work then the peak might not ever come, while if we fail in any way we might experience a spike in cases," he said.
Amitabh Kant, Chairman of the Empowered Group dealing with civil society, NGOs, industries and international partners, said in 112 aspirational districts, "we worked with the collectors and in these 112 districts only 610 cases have been reported which is two per cent of the national level infection".
In these 112 districts, 22 per cent of India's population resides, he said.
In a few districts like Baramulla, Nuh, Ranchi, Kupwara and Jaisalmer more than 30 cases have been reported, while in the rest of the places very few cases are there, Kant, who is also the CEO of NITI Aayog, said.
Kant said the telemedicine service is now available on the Aarogya Setu application.
He said 90 million people have installed the Aarogya Setu app till now.
"Arogya Setu Mitra which has telemedicine features is also there," he said.
The mobile application helps users identify whether they are at risk of the COVID-19 infection. It also provides people with important information, including ways to avoid coronavirus infection and its symptoms.
"The application enables people to assess the risk of exposure to COVID-19 infection based on their interaction with others, using cutting edge bluetooth technology, and artificial Intelligence enabled algorithms," he said.
Kant said the Empowered Group 6 has mobilised over 92,000 NGOs and CSOs and appealed them to assist state governments and district administrations in identifying hotspots and delivering essential services to the vulnerable including the homeless, daily wagers and migrant workers.
Agarwal said the outcome ratio of COVID-19 -- the ratio of recoveries and deaths of closed cases -- was recorded at 90:10.
"The outcome ratio on April 17 was 80:20 which is now 90:10 which can be seen as an improvement," Agarwal said.
He also assured that there is no shortage of testing kits.
"On Sunday, 57,474 tests were conducted. We have progressively increased our testing capacity as per need," he said.
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