Assam Tea Estates See Over 300% Spike In Covid Cases In Last 10 Days

Assam has 800 tea gardens, 370 of them are Covid-affected while only 271 of these have COVID care centres, as per Assam government data.

At Keyhung tea estate in Assam's Tinsukia district, Manju Tanti, a 47-year-old worker, sings to herself to keep her spirits high as she goes about plucking tea leaves. It's the crucial plucking season for Assam tea and the estates are operating despite strict restrictions in the state. But Manju, who is a mother of two young children, is worried. As many as 30 of her coworkers have tested positive for Covid in the last few days. In the last ten days, there has been a spike of over 300 percent in cases among the tea garden workers, deaths have also gone up threefold, according to the state government data accessed by NDTV. 57 new Covid care centres have come up in the tea garden. But around 29 affected tea gardens still don't have Covid care centres. Till May 28, 6,146 tea garden workers tested positive, 43 of these died while till May 19, there were 1,851 positive cases in 229 tea gardens with 14 deaths - only 214 of these tea gardens had Covid care centres by that time.