Thiruvananthapuram, April 18: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday released the total number of migrant labourers who are sheltered in camps across the state amid the nationwide lockdown. Vijayan claimed that over three lakh migrants are staying in over 18,900 shelter camps in various parts of the coastal state. COVID-19 Live Tracker: Map The Spread of Coronavirus in All Parts of India.

Vijayan further added the Left Front government is treating the stranded migrants like "guests", adding that the state is not referring to them as migrant labourers but using the term of "guest workers".

"To us, these people are not migrant workers, they are our guests; that is why we have coined the term guest workers. As of now, 3,38,426 guest workers are being sheltered in 18,912 camps," Vijayan was reported as saying.

Update by ANI

The Vijayan government has drawn praise from several quarters for not only restricting the number of new COVID-19 infections, but also providing effective treatment to most among the COVID-19 patients. Kerala is the only state where the number of recoveries is larger than the number of active cases. Out of the total 396 recorded cases, 255 have recovered.

According to the Kerala CM, the high recovery rate of COVID-19 comes in the backdrop of persistent efforts taken by the state to improve its medical facilities even in the remotest parts. "We have a well-knit structure of public health maintenance & a strong network of health centers that ensure the wellbeing of the people at large even at the grassroots level," he said.

"It is against this backdrop that we launched 'Aardram' mission that was meant to raise the overall medical facilities of the people in general & that of the common folk who reach out to primary health centres with much expectation, in particular," Vijayan added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 18, 2020 06:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).