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Two Covid-19 deaths in two days darken Goa’s mood, CM says nothing to worry

Goa’s coronavirus count mounted to 902 with the addition of 45 new cases on Monday.

Updated on: Jun 24, 2020, 24:05:46 IST
Hindustan Times, Panaji | By
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Two Covid-19 deaths in two days have sent shockwaves through Goa, which until Sunday had maintained a perfect record of zero deaths despite mounting coronavirus cases.

95% of Goa’s all Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic. (AFP Photo)
95% of Goa’s all Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic. (AFP Photo)

On Sunday, an 85-year old bed-ridden man became Goa’s first Covid-19 casualty followed by a 58-year old man’s death. The latter had underlying heart conditions that aggravated his condition.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant, however, sought to allay fears that the number of deaths would increase in the coming days.

“Barring the two persons who have died, all the rest in Covid hospital are stable,” Sawant said while speaking to reporters on Monday.

Goa’s coronavirus count mounted to 902 with the addition of 45 new cases on Monday, one less than the 46 cases recorded on Sunday and 19 less than the 64 cases registered on Saturday. The recent spate in Covid-19 infections has resulted in 462 cases per million ratio for Goa, the fourth highest in the country behind Ladakh, Delhi and Maharashtra.

A former health minister, too, was found positive for the disease and moved to the Covid-19 Hospital on Monday night; his condition is said to be stable.

90% of Goa’s 705 cases have been registered in the month of June with the daily growth rate now comparable with much larger states.

Goa’s 30-40 cases per day puts it in the same league as Jharkhand, which averaged around 60 cases per day and Chhattisgarh, averaging around 49 cases a day.

Goa has, however, conducted a lot more tests, nearly 55,000, amounting to 30,000 tests per million people.

Besides a dedicated Covid-19 Hospital, Goa has six Covid care centres where asymptomatic patients -- who make up around 95% of Goa’s all cases -- are being treated.

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