Subsequent to the Ministry of Home Affairs order regarding movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons stranded at different places by special trains, Indian Railways had decided to operate “Shramik Special” trains form 1st May 2020.

As on 20th May 2020, a total of 1773 “Shramik Special” trains were operationalized from various states across the country. More than 23.5 lacs passengers have reached their home state by these “Shramik Special” trains.

Yesterday i.e. 19th May 2020, with record a total of 205 “Shramik Special” trains were operationalized from various states across the country with more than 2.5 lacs passengers. Bengaluru saw 11 shramik special trains being operationalized to various north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh , Bihar and Jharkhand

These 1773 trains originated from various states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh UT, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Puducherry UT, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal.

Also, these Shramik Special Trains were terminated in various States like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal,

Proper screening of passengers is ensured before boarding the train. During the journey, passengers are given free meals and water.

This movement is even while through a graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach, Government of India is taking several steps along with the States/UTs for prevention, containment and management of COVID-19. These are being regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level.

India has been relatively able to decelerate the pace of COVID-19 and the impact can been seen in the data of COVID-19 cases. Compared to the global scale, where there are 62.3 cases per lakh, India still has only 7.9 cases/ lakh population. Similarly, for mortality per lakh population, while the global average rate is 4.2, India’s figure is pegged at 0.2. The relatively low death figures represent timely case identification and clinical management of the cases.

The focus on clinical management and recovery has resulted in the improvement in the recovery rate. More than 39.6 % of the confirmed cases have recovered bringing the total to 42,298 recoveries, as of today. This is a reminder that the disease is curable and the clinical management protocols adopted by India are effective. It is observed in the recovery data that about 2.9% of all active cases under management require Oxygen support; about 3% of the active cases under management require ICU support and 0.45% of the active cases under management require ventilator support. India has concurrently been focusing on upgrading COVID dedicated health infrastructure.