With Karnataka announcing a 14-day lockdown starting Tuesday night, the border districts of Krishnagiri and neighbouring Dharmapuri are expected to see a large number of migrants from Karnataka returning to their villages.
A large number of youth from Dharmapuri are employed in Karnataka.
With the lockdown announced on Monday in the neighbouring State, the Health Department is anticipating a spike in COVID-19 cases because of the return of a large number of migrant workers.
Soon after the nationwide lockdown was announced last year, there was a flurry of migrant workers crossing the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border on foot.
Monday’s announcement in Karnataka comes in the backdrop of the Bengaluru Urban district recording a sharp increase in the tally of cases.
However, till Monday evening, authorities in both districts had not announced any specific plan for quarantining or testing returnees.
The health apparatus in both districts are already overwhelmed with the increase in fresh cases.
Krishnagiri Collector V. Jayachandra Bhanu Reddy attributed the spike in cases to the increase in testing and tracing.
There was no response from Dharmapuri Collector S.P. Karthika despite The Hindu’s efforts to get her views on the situation.
