Team Herald
PANJIM: A day after BJP Panjim MLA Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate tested positive for COVID-19, the Goa Legislative Assembly has directed Ministers, MLAs and their staff to undergo a swab test.
The Health Advisory was issued as Monserrate was present for the ongoing Budget Session of the State Legislative Assembly.
The advisory issued by Secretary Namrata Ulman stated that all the Members should undergo swab tests at the primary health centers or hospitals of their jurisdiction, so also the primary contacts, staff should also get their swabs for testing on March 27 and 28.
“The Collectorate has issued orders to the doctors to be available at their respective PHC or hospitals to carry out the swab testing for the Members and their staff,” Ulman said. The entire Assembly complex building was also sanitised on Saturday.
Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude tweeted Saturday evening that he had tested negative.
Being a weekend and a public holiday on the occasion of Holi on Monday, the Assembly session will now resume only on March 30.
On Friday the Panjim MLA had announced that he had tested positive. The
development has shaken many, including the newly elected councilors of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), who had participated in an election victory celebration on Thursday – a day before the MLA tested positive.
The MLA, Councilors as well as their supporters were also seen without masks on the streets of the State capital after the counting.
When contacted, outgoing Mayor Uday Madkaikar said that all the councilors-elect have been asked to undergo tests or to get themselves home isolated.
Panjim had the maximum number of 155 active cases as on Friday, while on Saturday, 16 more persons had tested positive for coronavirus in the city.
