Goa: Health director tests positive, gets admitted to private hospital

PANAJI: Dr Jose D’Sa, director of health services, tested positive on Thursday and was admitted to a private hospital.

The day also saw six Covid fatalities, which took the August death toll to 125 and the overall toll to 171. The state has reported 100 Covid deaths over the past 20 days.
The past fortnight has seen a surge in positive cases and deaths with several politicians and high-profile persons testing positive.
After a dip over the festival weekend, there was a rise again with 456 positive cases reported on Thursday and 421 reports awaited. Three of the latest deaths reported are from Margao and the rest from Taleigao, Paroda and Bambolim. One of them died at GMC and the rest at the ESI-Covid hospital, Margao.
Bambolim reported its first death — an 84-year-old female — and Taleigao its third after a 58-year-old man succumbed to the virus. A 65-year-old lady from Paroda also died. The rest, a 95-year-old, 69-year-old and 54-year-old were all from Margao.
Two of the patients from South Goa who died recently after being brought to the hospital weren’t aware they were Covid positive.
“They didn’t know they were Covid positive and neither were their families aware. They were taken to hospital after they complained of breathlessness and uneasiness. One patient’s report came positive while he was being shifted to GMC and in the other case the patient tested positive in the post mortem,” a doctor said.
In both cases, the patients tested negative on rapid antigen test and positive on TruNat.
“If patients come in after day five and six of having Covid and if there is lung involvement, the throat swab doesn’t pick up the virus as it has already travelled to the lungs,” a doctor said.
Several of the Covid deaths reported over this month are from Margao and neighbouring areas. The Margao urban health centre continued to report the highest active positive cases at 496. Health workers say community transmission is on here.
“The cases in Margao are spread out. There’s no outbreak in any particular area. Containment zones are declared only when new positives appear in a cluster, but now the positives are very random. Once the contact who transmitted Covid to you cannot be established or traced it is community transmission,” the health worker said.
The clergy home in Margao for retired priests reported its second Covid death — a 94-year-old priest who was admitted to the ESI hospital. A total of 16 elderly priests and four helpers tested positive in the home more than a fortnight ago. Four of them were hospitalised of which two passed away.
One was shifted from ESI-Covid hospital to a private hospital.
The rest are asymptomatic and are under home isolation, a priest said.
“We are all well and have no symptoms. Eighteen days have already passed, but since we were all tested on different days we will be under home isolation for four more days,” the priest said.