MARGAO: The cases under the Margao Urban Health Center have seen a quantum jump since the beginning of August. Margao currently has 518 active cases of COVID-19 only revealing that the spread of the virus has engulfed a large community. Doctors claim that there is lot of testing and hence positive cases are found.
The month of August started with 110 active cases of COVID-19, while Vasco UHC had 390 active cases. However, now Margao has 518 active cases and Vasco has 247. The Margao UHC covers a thickly-populated area of Margao town, Fatorda, bordering areas of Navelim and right up to Nuvem.
Hospicio Medical Superintendent Dr Deepa Correia said, “This is a positive sign that there is a lot of testing going on. This is general testing and right way to go. Unless we test we won’t know. Lower numbers won’t mean that there are lower cases.”
Correia said that there will be two waves, one big wave and another one in some more months. “The disease will be like this,” she added.
Margao MLA Digambar Kamat said, “This is the reason I was asking for community testing, which has also been testified by the AIIMS team recently. I guess the infection is spread all over now. The area under Margao UHC is large,” he said.
He added, “In fact rather than the survey by the government (door-to-door survey earlier done) there was need to do community testing.” Expressing fear of less number of beds for patients, Kamat said, “If patients at home become symptomatic where are they going to go? Hospitals, COVID care centers, everything is full.”
