Goa holds its breath as preliminary test shows 7 people Covid-19 positive

Goa had earlier reported seven cases of Covid-19. All of them had recovered last month.

Goa is anxiously awaiting the test results of seven people who tested positive for coronavirus in a preliminary test Wednesday evening, 24 days after the state brought down its Covid-19 count to zero.

Migrants undergo thermal screening before boarding a special train for Madhya Pradesh at Goa’s Thivim Railway Station.(ANI)

Goa’s Health Minister Vishwajit Rane confirmed that the seven people including five members of a family and their driver returning from Mumbai in their car tested positive. In a separate case, a truck driver also tested positive. But the results of their RT-PCR confirmatory tests are awaited.

A patient is formally declared as Covid19 positive only once the results of the RT-PCR test are available.

“Seven new Covid-19 cases have been reported via the TrueNat testing done at Ponda Sub-District Hospital. The tests have been further sent to the virology lab at GMC for confirmation. Results are awaited,” Rane said.

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The Truenat test, is a test that has been used to detect tuberculosis but now is used as a rapid RT-PCR technique to test for the presence of the coronavirus.

According to the health department, the family which entered Goa on Wednesday, had not contacted any person and had driven straight from the state’s road border to the quarantine centre after being tested, as per protocol.

The seventh case was that of a truck driver hailing from Gujarat, called local health authorities after he developed symptoms. Persons he has come in contact with have also been quarantined.

If the infections are confirmed, it will represent a doubling of Goa’s tally which stood at seven on April 3, when the last case was detected all of whom have since recovered. On April 19, authorities declared that the last Covid-19 patient had recovered. Goa was declared a green zone while movement of people within the state was liberalised.

State authorities have sought to reassure local residents that it was not a case of local or community transmission as all the patients were from outside the state who were detected upon entry.