Tourist tests positive for COVID-19 in Calangute

NT NETWORK

Calangute

Even as COVID-19 warriors are working hard to combat the virus, authorities in the administration faced a tough time on Friday to trace a tourist, who tested positive for COVID-19, making him the first tourist in the state to get infected.

The tourist, who had come down on a four-day holiday and was staying at a hotel in Calangute, was finally traced at the Thivim railway station and subsequently shifted to the COVID care centre
at Mapusa.        

Calangute health officer Dr Roshan Nazareth told this daily that this is the first case wherein a tourist has tested positive for the dreaded virus. The tally of COVID positive cases in Calangute is now three.

According to sources, the tourist, accompanied by another female tourist, was staying in a hotel at Khobrawaddo in Calangute. Following the receipt of the swab sample report, which indicated that the tourist was positive for COVID, the Deputy Collector, North, went to the hotel to instruct

the tourist to remain under quarantine. However, noticing that the tourist was missing from the hotel, the Deputy Collector instructed the police and the village panchayat to trace him.

After a long hunt, the tourist was finally traced by the police at the Thivim railway station. Sources said the tourist had checked out of the hotel after learning that the police and panchayat members were looking out for him. He was later shifted by the police to the Mapusa COVID care centre.

Throat swab samples of the staff of the hotel where the tourist stayed and others, including a taxi driver, who may have come in contact with the tourist have been collected and sent for testing. All the ten persons whose swabs have been collected have been instructed to remain quarantined for 14 days.

Meanwhile, in connection with the second case that came to light recently at Tivaiwaddo wherein a man working in Maldives had come down to Goa, swab samples of 77 high risk contacts of the man have been collected and sent for testing.