By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 7, 2020: Odisha on Thursday posted its highest single-day surge in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive cases with 21 more people reporting positive. The overall tally in the state rose to 206.

Incidentally, all 21 new Covid-19 positive cases were migrant labourers, including 17 and four from Ganjam and Mayurbhanj districts, respectively, who had recently returned home from the industrial town of Surat in Gujarat, the state health and family welfare department said in a tweet.

A 20-year-old girl is among the 17 new Covid-19 positive cases reported from the coastal Ganjam district. All the new Covid-19 positive cases are asymptomatic and have been kept at quarantine centres on their return to Odisha, the health department officials said.

On Wednesday, another nine migrant workers, who recently returned from Surat, tested Covid-19 positive in Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam and Kendrapara districts.

Of the 206 Covid-19 positive cases in the state, around half have either returned from Surat or Kolkata.

More than 35,000 migrant workers had returned to Odisha till Wednesday and another five lakh are expected to arrive in the next few weeks. The state government has arranged an equal number of quarantine beds in around 12,000 makeshift medical camps.

State health department officials said that the curve is unlikely to be flattened in the coming days, as Odisha is expecting an influx of stranded migrant labourers.

Odisha reported its first Covid-19 positive cases in 37 days, and the figure doubled in only 11 days, raising concerns for the state government.

What is still wore is that hundreds of migrants, who returned from Surat, flouted state government’s guidelines and did not register their vehicles on the Covid-19 portal giving the journey details.

For instance, in some quarantine centres in Ganjam district, over 100 migrant returnees fled as a mark of protest against lack of food and water and in another case they threw away ‘unpalatable’ food.

The authorities have booked seven people at a quarantine centre in coastal Bhadrak district for filming a video in violation of social distancing norms.

Allegations are also doing the rounds about some migrant returnees, who are quietly slinking away at the dead of night from the quarantine centres to spend time with their families.

Though the state government has issued stern warnings against such indiscretions, officials said they did not want to be seen heavy-handed in their approach while dealing with the migrants.