Rush of travellers at Patradevi checkpost

PANAJI: Sunday morning witnessed a surge in arrivals at the Patradevi checkpost. Most of those waiting to enter were industrial workers stationed outside the state.
Nearly 200 travellers lined up from between 6am and 7am at the checkpost, waiting in a queue to submit their self-declaration forms and pay Rs 2,000 for the Covid-19 test. After this, they were referred to a swab collection centre either at the North Goa district hospital, or any other facility.
With a large number of people gathering at one time, staffers at the Patradevi checkpost said it was impossible to maintain a distance of one-metre between each person in the queue.
Though the number of people lessened as the day progressed, one staffer said the government must seriously think of capping the number of daily arrivals to allow the system some breathing space.
“Otherwise, as we have witnessed, it is practically difficult to keep an effective tab on the people waiting to submit their self-declaration forms and to make payment for the test,” he said On Friday, health minister Vishwajit Rane had suggested capping the number of arrivals for better management. The government, however, is yet to take a call on this.
The only change is that instead of sending all those who enter via the Patradevi checkpost to the district hospital at Mapusa, some are referred to other swab collection centres.
At the district hospital at Mapusa more counters have been opened, thus helping reduce the stress as well as the wait period for passengers.
An officer, however, said it would be better if capping on arrivals is maintained, as was done previously.
Once a visitor gives his/ her swab for testing, they are permitted to go with instructions to self-isolate until the test result is known. “Since a traveller is sent off before the test result is known, and he/ she is not stamped, there are no checks to ensure that the directions are followed in to-to. There are chances that many could defy the instructions, going about doing what they want to do,” he said.
At the least, home quarantine must be observed till the result is known, he said. To be on the safer side, the travellers must be home quarantine for seven days, irrespective of result of screening or the True-Nat test, he said.
Test reports are normally received within 24 hours and further intimated to travellers via SMS. As per protocol, if the result is negative, the traveler is not required to home quarantine him/herself.
Out of total 71 cases reported by the state, majority had travel history.