Team Herald
PANJIM: As Goa reaches a half century with four new positive COVID-19 cases reported on Wednesday, the major challenge the State faces is of preventing local transmission, which has been acknowledged by the Health Department.
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Health Secretary Nila Mohanan said that from the four new cases two were from the Rajdhani train, which arrived on Sunday, one from Pune, who came by bus and a Coast Guard official, who came from Mumbai. “This takes the tally of total active cases to 43, and a total 50 cases overall,” she said.
On Wednesday 587 samples were sent for testing and 543 received and 52 reports were pending. She said that 86 persons were under home quarantine and 322 travellers were under facility quarantine while five suspects are under hospital isolation.
The Health Secretary maintained that there was no need to panic as all the patients at the COVID hospital were responding well to treatment. “Only two patients have shown symptoms rest all are asymptomatic,” she explained.
Mohanan said the State has increased the capacity at the COVID hospital to 170, by adding 70 new beds. “We will further increase the beds to actual capacity of 220 in a few days,” she disclosed, adding that the State has enough ventilators for now as there are 16 ventilators at the COVID hospital and 100 across the State. “25 new ventilators will be received shortly from suppliers,” she said.
She also rubbished reports on shortage of quarantine facilities saying there was no shortage of rooms for quarantine in Goa. “Presently 777 are undergoing quarantine in hotels,” she said.
Asked about the safety of personnel at border check posts Mohanan said that hospital gowns and safety kits will be provided to government personnel at the borders. “Corporate companies and businesses are welcome to sponsor the same under CSR,” she said.
She added that all personnel at Mollem check post, where the Kolkata returnees had tested positive, were tested for COVID-19 and have tested negative.
Replying to a query, Mohanan said that preventing local transmission is the next challenge for the State. “All cases are imported and we have taken all preventive measures but preventing local transmission is the challenge before community transmission starts, which is the third stage,” she said.
Responding to news of resumption of domestic airlines from May 25, the Secretary said that the same SOPs will be followed till new protocols are issued by the Centre.
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‘TrueNAT testing is authentic, globally accepted’
Clearing the air of speculation, Health Secretary Nila Mohanan on Wednesday said that TrueNAT testing is authentic and globally accepted for COVID-19. There were reports of false negatives by this methods and the secretary laid them to rest.
Mohanan added that TrueNAT has come with confirmatory kits and has received approval from ICMR. “Once manufacturing starts, all major issues will be solved and results will out very soon,” she said.
She clarified that there were no rapid tests conducted in Goa as per instructions of ICMR. “Only TrueNAT screening tests are done and if found positive we do confirmatory tests,” Mohanan explained.
