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Man with travel history is Goa’s 7th Covid-19 patient
The patient has been shifted to the specialised Covid-19 hospital while his close family members will be quarantined and tested to check if they have contracted the disease.
One person has been found positive for the novel coronavirus in Goa taking the state’s tally to seven. In the second case to be detected in as many days after a two day lull, a person with travel history, who arrived from abroad was found to have contracted the Covid-19. The patient has been shifted to the specialised Covid-19 hospital while his close family members will be quarantined and tested to check if they have contracted the disease.
“Out of the 25 samples sent for testing, only one report has been tested positive. A man from St Estevam, who had returned from a foreign country. He has been shifted to Covid-19 hospital. Total active cases in the state now are seven,” Goa health minister Vishwajit Rane tweeted.
While the Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant had expressed a fear that those who attended the Tableegh-e-Jamaat at Nizamuddin would take Goa “back in the danger zone”, the eight persons who had attended congregation have reported negative for #Covid19, one test report still awaited.
Through sealing the borders, Goa has been able to by and large prevent the spread of Covid-19, those who arrived in the state before the lockdown began, have begun to show symptoms. Six of Goa’s seven cases are among those who have arrived from abroad four being employed on the merchant navy and cruise tourism industries.
Around 7,000 to 8,000 Goans working abroad on board cruise liners and the merchant navy await repatriation to the state.
“Seafarers are one of the biggest issues. I am concerned about them. There are around 7,000 to 8,000 Goan sailors abroad. I spoke to the Home Minister about how to get them back and where to quarantine (once they return),” Sawant told reporters at a press conference earlier this week.
No plan has been drawn up yet, while those abroad have complained that it is only the Indians among the crew who are yet to be repatriated by the respective countries.
