Five more die, ten days of August have seen 35 Covid-19 deaths in Goa

PANAJI: The first ten days of August saw 35 persons succumb to the Covid-19 pandemic, an average of more than three deaths a day, and almost half of all Covid deaths reported in the state.
On Monday, five more persons were reported to have died of the novel coronavirus, taking the death toll to 80. The state’s total Covid-19 count, too, soared past the 9,000 mark, after 317 new infections were detected. At present, there are over 2,700 active cases in Goa.

While three persons — a 49-year-old woman from Aquem, a 73-year-old man from Quepem, and a 47-year-old man from Zuarinagar, all with comorbid conditions — died at the ESI-Covid hospital, two others — a 55-year-old man from Chimbel and a 74-year-old woman from Ponda — died at Goa Medical College (GMC) and hospital, Bambolim.
Panaji mayor Uday Madkaikar said that two of the day’s 12 cases in the city can’t be traced since they provided incomplete addresses. Also, a peon at the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) tested positive, after which the office was sanitised.
Others who tested positive on Monday include an employee at the office of the health minister, a GMC lab technician and staff nurse, both residing at Campal, a doctor at the ESI-Covid hospital, a PWD engineer at the St Inez office, and a police staffer attached to the Calangute police station.
Meanwhile, a day after health minister Vishwajit Rane announced a second Covid hospital, he engaged in a discussion with the Yale Institute of Global Health to learn about better contact tracing practices.
“We exchanged treatment protocols, discussed Centre for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines on discharge policy, the cutting-edge saliva testing being done in the US as an alternative to swab testing, and how the turn-around time for sample testing needs to be cut down for effective contact tracing,” he said, adding that the government will implement the knowledge gathered through the call to fight the crisis.