Team Herald
margao: Goa Congress has requested the government not to rush into declaring the State as Covid-19 free.
Goa Congress Chief Girish Chodankar said the data released by the govt on Sunday, April 19 reveals that 826 samples were sent for testing out of which reports of 780 patients were received by the govtill date.
“There were 7 positive cases detected in Goa and all the seven have completely recovered from COVID-19. This data has brought out shocking information that the govt tested just 0.04% of the total 16 lakhs population of Goa from March 22, 2020 till April 19 2020”.
“Out of 780 samples tested, 7 had turned positive for coronavirus, which turns out to be 1% of the samples tested. This is alarming and the govt needs to justify its claim before declaring Goa as Covid19 free,” said Girish.
“The govt also claimed to cover 3.66 lakhs houses in hardly 24 hours covering almost 16 lakhs population of the State during the Community Survey undertaken by the government engaging 7,000 government employees. This statistics raise strong doubts on the authenticity of the entire survey exercise. There are reports of a sizable number of houses and individuals being left out of the survey” pointed out Girish.
“The govt data also reveals that 1794 persons are home quarantined, 202 are facility quarantined and around 162 are in hospital isolation at GMC which works out to 2158 persons while testing of just 780 patients is done by the govt in the last 28 days. They need to explain why it failed to test all 2158 patients who are quarantined under suspicion of infection of coronavirus” demanded Girish.
“The CMt needs to explain his govt’s plan of action with regards to medical care to be provided to the 30,000 persons who are identified with flu- like symptoms and suffering from ‘ILI’ and ‘SARI’ during the Community Survey” he said.
Girish said they want to draw the CM’s attention to the MHA report, which revealed that 15 lakh international passengers arrived in India between January 18 and March 23. “The central govt had shared the details of travellers to respective States with directives to have screening, strict surveillance and quarantine. As per the MHA estimate at least 20,000 passengers might have arrived in Goa by direct flights from Middle East alone, keep aside passengers coming from other countries to Goa via Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi airports. CM has to verify first if this protocol was followed before arriving at any decisions” advised Girish.
“CM should remember that national study in India shows 2/3rd of all COVID-19 cases consisting of people who did not show any symptoms at the time of testing while in Maharashtra it is 3/4th. There is a silent spread of Covid19 through asymptomatic people which is a new challenge” pointed out Girish.
Congress added that as the main opposition party it is their duty to bring these facts to the notice of the govt. “We urge the govt to take steps to expedite community testing and build up facilities to quarantine likely suspects who may emerge from community testing. Utmost precautions need to be taken to screen people arriving from our adjoining States of Karnataka and Maharashtra, where the virus situation is grim,” the GPCC president added.
