Goa took 55 days for first 100 deaths, just 19 to touch 200

PANAJI: The state’s active Covid-19 tally rose by 636 and its death toll by 10 on Wednesday, both single-day highs, even as its post-Ganesh Chaturthi spike continued with the tally touching 4,000 new infections.
While the state took 55 days to reach its first 100 deaths, its second hundred came in a mere 19 days as Goa’s toll on Wednesday stood at 204. The government has attributed the rise in deaths to patients coming late for treatment.
Health minister Vishwajit Rane said that the government would come out with a “white paper” on the rising mortality rate.
“We have taken a break-up of deaths,” he said. “Many people come to the hospital at the middle stage of the infection. Some come after five days, and some even ten days later, and after developing the symptoms.” He was replying to a query why deaths have not dropped even after Goa Medical College (GMC), Bambolim, has started treating high-risk patients.
In some cases, Rane said that patients were brought to hospital a few hours before their death. “These are challenging times,” he said. “We urge people to get tested immediately if Covid-19 symptoms are felt. Antigen testing facility has been made available at peripheral health centres.”
To reduce the death rate, he said “treatment has also to start on time.”
Of the ten fatalities, six men and two women died at GMC. While a 70-year-old man from Fatorda and a 76-year-old woman from Baina died on Monday, a 36-year-old man from Vasco and a 55-year-old from Mapusa succumbed on Tuesday.
Three men — a 30-year-old from Sao Jose de Areal, a 65-year-old from Bicholim, and a 64-year-old from Sankhali — and a 53-year-old woman from Nerul, died on Wednesday.
One death, that of a 45-year-old man from New Vaddem, was reported from the ESI-Covid hospital in Margao. A 47-year-old man from Candolim who was brought dead at the primary health centre, Siolim, on Tuesday, tested positive for Covid-19.