Goa: Verna industry body moots testing facility within industrial estate

MARGAO: Concerned over the surge in the Covid positive cases in the industrial estate, the Verna Industries Association is in talks with the state government to set up a dedicated Covid testing laboratory within the industrial estate. The proposed facility is expected to ease the burden on the testing laboratory at the South Goa district hospital, and also ensure faster availability of results.
President of Goa Small Industries Association Damodar Kochkar said that the proposal has received a favourable response from the government and hoped that the facility would soon be set up.
“As this testing laboratory will be exclusively for the employees of the Verna Industrial Estate, the reports will be made available soon, thereby reducing the time an industrial worker whose throat swab sample has been drawn is subjected to isolation,” Kochkar said. “We are ready to cooperate with the government, even in terms of sponsoring the machine.”
As per protocol, every employee whose swab sample is drawn is asked to stay in home quarantine or an isolation facility until his test report is obtained. The estate houses over 400 units employing nearly 40,000 workers.
Sources in the industrial estate said that apart from Tulip Diagnostics, several other units have also reported positive cases. This has led to a large number of workers from affected units queuing up at the swab collection kiosk set up at the Verna industrial estate thereby significantly enhancing the workload on the already stretched medical team and infrastructure. Sources said there was need for at least another swab collection kiosk with an additional medical team.
Concerns, however, have been raised from certain quarters over the suitability of the site of the swab collection kiosk from the point of health security, considering that is set up in a busy location. “The kiosk should ideally be set up in a fairly isolated location — even outside of the industrial estate, but in its vicinity would be ideal — considering the interests of the workers and the medical team,” a source in the association said.
Currently, a three-member medical team from the Sancoale ESI dispensary headed by Dr Sunil Kavlekar has been on the frontlines at the Verna industrial estate, manning the kiosk since the last nearly three months.