Goa records highest single-day spike of 47 COVID-19 cases

Goa reported its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases so far on Wednesday as 47 people tested positive for the infection, a health department official said. This took the tally of coronavirus patients in the coastal state to 126, the official said. Goa, which was declared a green zone a month back, now has 69 active cases, he said.

Of the 47 new cases, 42 tested positive in Mangor Hill locality in Vasco town of South Goa alone. The state government had earlier identified Mangor Hill locality as a COVID-19 containment zone and mounted testing in it, the official said.

As per the medical bulletin issued here, two of the patients had travelled from Maharashtra. Three others were air passengers. While two of them had arrived from Dubai, one other had come from Hyderabad.

All the people who tested positive have been admitted to ESI hospital in Margao town, which is a specially designated facility established by Goa government.

Meanwhile, Mangor Hill locality has become a bone of contention with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant stating that the cases found there were of due to "local infection" and not community transmission.

He said that the entire area, which has around 2,000 houses, has been sealed and the state authorities have made arrangements to provide essentials to the people living there.

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Opposition parties demanded that entire Vasco town be declared as a containment zone and sealed so that the infection does not spread further.

In a press conference, Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte accused Sawant of failing to handle the situation. "The chief minister is shying away from announcing the cases found in Mangor Hill as community transmission," he said.

Congress's Goa spokesman Trajano D'Mello said that the state government should not treat the Mangor Hill cases as isolated ones.

"The entire Vasco town should be sealed and testing in the port town should be stepped up," he added.

Goa's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases: 126, new cases: 47, deaths: zero, discharged: 57, active cases 69, samples tested so far: 23,816.

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