Goa’s COVID-19 count reached 21 on Sunday with seven passengers of a train from New Delhi, and a worker who entered the State from Karwar in Karnataka, testing positive.
Goa which had zero cases till May 12, reported seven cases in one day on May 13 after people who travelled to the State by road from Mumbai and Vapi tested positive.
Interactive map of confirmed coronavirus cases in India
On Saturday, the State reported five cases, including two persons who had returned from Kolkata after delivering a barge.
On Sunday, officials said that while five persons on the New Delhi-Madgaon train, which have arrived in the State on Saturday, had tested positive, there were eight-10 other passengers, too, who had tested positive after a Truenat swab test, and were awaiting confirmatory testing at the Goa Medical College and Hospital.
Goa Health Minister Viswajit Rane said the 15 cases that had been confirmed were transferred to the COVID-19 hospital in Madgaon.
“In addition, the government has given instructions to quarantine the passengers who travelled with the individuals that tested positive to ensure there is no community transmission,” Mr. Rane said.
The Health Minister informed that with the induction of the latest Abbott M2000 RTPCR machine, the government was increasing testing facilities at the Goa Medical College and Hospital.
“We are also recruiting more M.Sc. and MD [-qualified] microbiologists so that we can further scale up the testing. The microbiology lab shall further strengthen our fight against COVID-19. We are in the process of increasing the TrueNat testing facilities in Hospicio, Asilo and Sub Divisional Hospital, Ponda,” Mr. Rane said, on the way forward.