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Mumbai:

Alarmed by a spurt in Covid-19 cases, the state government on Monday quarantined all 1.8 lakh migrant workers and labourers across the state till April 14.

A senior bureaucrat told TOI that following the 21-day nationwide lockdown declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, all the districts were sealed and a ban imposed on movement of migrant workers .

“Directives were issued to all district collectors to ensure that migrant workers and labourers do not move out of their respective districts and that relief camps be set up for them where food must be provided. It has been decided to quarantine them,” he said.

The measures are in keeping with norms prescribed by the World Health Organisation, said the bureaucrat.

Elaborating, the bureaucrat said the workers have been lodged at relief camps, marriage halls and schools across the state. “Our doctors examine them at least once a day and a distance of at least five feet is maintained between two migrants. It is a difficult task but we have no option. At certain camps, we did face a law-and-order problem, since a large group was insisting on leaving,’’ he said.

The bureaucrat said while the maximum migrants are in the Pune division at over a lakh, Nagpur division has 11,132, Konkan 42,717, Aurangabad 11,435, Amravati 7,420 and Nashik 1,257. The largest number of migrant workers are in Kolhapur at 46,171, followed by Sangli at 45,913, Raigad at 18,326 and Pune 12,460, while there was none in Satara. The district administration will make arrangements for them till the lockdown ends.

Migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh were seen walking along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in Palghar on Monday