No community transmission in Goa; 29 active Covid-19 cases: Official (Ld)

Panaji, June 2 (IANS) Hours after Health Minister Vishwajit Rane ‘confirmed the first instance of community transmission in Goa, claiming an entire family and its doctor had tested positive for Covid-10, state Health Secretary Nila Mohanan denied the presence of community transmission of the virus in Goa.

Mohanan also said that only two persons from the family of five based in Vasco in South Goa had tested positive, adding that the presence of the cases do not indicate community transmission in the state.

“We have two more confirmed cases today. These are two members of a family from Mangor Hill in Vasco. They have tested positive in our RT-PCR test as well, so we are now doing very concentrated contact tracing and taking all efforts to see what the links are and who are the possible contacts,” Mohanan told a press conference here on Monday.

Both the persons who have tested positive have been admitted to the state’s designated Covid-19 hospital and the Mangor Hill area, where the family’s home is located, has been declared a containment zone, the official said.

“This takes the total number of active cases in Goa to 29. We have sent 1,289 samples for testing. Eight people are under hospital isolation,” Mohanan also said.

The health official also stated that the revelation of two cases did not mean that community transmission in the state has started. “Not at all, we are still doing contact tracing. All that is going on, so it would be very premature to say that at this stage,” Mohanan said, adding that once the contact history is fully established, the authorities would be able to determine whether there is community transmission in the area.

Earlier on Monday, Rane had said that five family members and their doctor had tested positive for Covid-19 and that the cluster of cases represented the first instance of community transmission in Goa.

–IANS

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