24 staffers of Goa health centre test positive for Covid-19, facility closed

The staffers were deployed in Mangor Hill, a congested locality in the port town of Vasco, before it was designated as Goa’s first Covid-19 containment zone on June 1. The state had reported 523 Covid-19 cases until Saturday.

As many as 24 out of the 34 staffers of a health centre in Goa’s Vasco and their 31 family members and other primary contacts have tested positive for Covid-19 and prompted the closure of the facility. The emergence of the centre as a Covid-19 hotspot has trigged panic in the villages of the staffers and forced villages, where these staffers reside, to impose lockdowns on their own.

A security guard seen at Covid-19 Care Hospital inside Wipro premises at Hinjawadi Phase 1 in Pune on Saturday. (Pratham Gokhale/HT File Photo)

A security guard, who contracted the infection at the centre, infected three members his family and six neighbours. Two other staffers have been found to have been the source of the infection to 15 people at Morlem near the Goa-Karnataka border. Six infections reported from Dharbandora, Usgao, Canacona villages have been also traced to health workers associated with the centre.

The staffers were deployed in Mangor Hill, a congested locality in the port town of Vasco, before it was designated as Goa’s first Covid-19 containment zone on June 1.

“Various active cases are of people working at the Urban Health Centre in Vasco. They are from various parts of Goa. Now all of them [health workers] are being put up in hotels and residencies. We are equally concerned that they have infected others across the state. We are trying to mitigate the situation and ensure that it does not happen again,” Goa health Secretary Nila Mohanan said.

The state government on Saturday got all security guards posted at the Goa Medical College (GMC) and Hospital tested at the premier health facility after a security guard working there was diagnosed with the disease.

“With reference to a security guard working at GMC who was tested positive, we have conducted swab testing for all the guards and their family members. We have placed them under quarantine until their results are out...,” said health minister Vishwajit Rane.

He said he has written to Mohanan instructing mass and random testing in areas where cases have been reported from.

Covid-19 cases have also been reported from the residential quarters of the Employee State Insurance Corporation, which is located near Goa’s dedicated Covid-19 hospital. Besides the 25 health workers, five drivers of the Kadamba Transport Corporation, the state-owned bus service, and four postal workers at the Vasco Post Office have also tested positive for the disease.