Goa: Around 30,000 persons found with flu-like symptoms, says CM Pramod Sawant

TNN | Updated: Apr 18, 2020, 13:07 IST

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PANAJI: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said that around 30,000 people have been identified to be suffering from Influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) during the three-day house to house community survey.
The state government had recently conducted the survey to identify persons with Covid-19 symptoms.
Sawant said the government will find out if there is any travel history among 25,000 to 30,000 people or their family members.
“After screening, we will test them for Covid-19. The number may reduce to 15,000 for those with travel history. If anyone, or their family members, have travel history then we will take their swab test,” Sawant said.
Sawant said through the survey they have covered nearly 5 lakh houses in the state. He said a committee, under the chairmanship of Dr Jagadish Kakodkar, HOD, preventive and social medicine, GMC, has been set up to examine the survey samples.
The benefit of this survey is that the state government will be able to ascertain if there are any persons with coronavirus symptoms for which tests can be conducted, Sawant said.
The chief minister had said that based on this, the government would “be able to declare Goa as a safe zone vis-à-vis Covid-19”.
Around 7,000 trained government employees, teachers of government and government-aided schools, booth-level officers and ANM staff were involved in he house-to-house survey, asking six questions prepared by the health department.
The survey was conducted across 1,560 polling booths in the state, and was on the lines of the one carried out in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district.
Sawant said that if someone is seen new in the locality then villagers should inform the authority so that they can be put in quarantined facilities..