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Three cops test positive for Covid-19 in Goa, state’s tally rises to 656
The three policemen were among 27 new cases reported from Goa on Wednesday.
Three police personnel tested positive in Goa for Covid-19 on Wednesday, taking the number of cops testing positive to four.
The three policemen were among 27 new cases that took Goa’s tally to 656 out of which 560 are active cases. Covid-19 cases have soared in Goa since June 1 when the state’s tally was 73.
Eleven people were declared recovered on Wednesday.
Health Secretary Nila Mohanan said that the police personnel were posted at the Vasco and Mormugao police stations, which cover areas that have been largely affected in terms of number of cases.
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Meanwhile ‘isolated cases’ began to emerge in parts of the state including urbanized localities and villages like Porvorim where the first case was detected, Quepem where four were detected, Margao two, Curtorim eight and Raia two, leaving Health authorities puzzled.
“These isolated cases are those in which there is no clear link. It means there is no established link at the time. We begin the contact tracing in each of the cases from the time a person tests positive. It is possible that sometimes we are able to establish a link as to where the patient contracted the virus from,” Mohanan said.
The emergence of isolated cases has sparked worries that the virus has spread beyond the state’s containment zones, where the bulk of the cases have registered to date and has spread to other villages other than those that are linked to either the containment zone or to the health workers who worked there.
The state now has two major containment zones at Mangor Hill a locality in the port town of Vasco da Gama and at Morlem village in rural Goa where some health workers hailed from and spread it to their family members. A third micro containment zone has been set up at Baina, another locality in Vasco da Gama where three buildings have been declared as a containment zone.
The number of cases in Goa continues to rise despite the efforts of the state government to track, test and isolate patients and their primary and secondary contacts.
