Goa on Wednesday reported a record 40 new coronavirus cases in South Goa’s Mangor hill area, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said, adding that a decision on further lockdown relaxations would depend on whether transmission has spread out of the cluster or not.
Sawant said that the cluster has been declared a containment zone and corona tests were being carried out on a war footing.
“Of the 200 persons tested at Mangor hill, 40 have tested positive today,” Sawant told reporters at the state Secretariat. The case count, the biggest yet on a single day, takes the total active cases in the coastal state to 62.
The first corona cases in the Mangor hill area were detected on Monday when several members of a family tested positive.
Sawant claimed that the family was not coming clean on how they could have been infected.
“The family is trying to hide something. We suspect a couple of reasons why the transmission occurred there. Either somebody from outside came in contact with them or one from their family returned from outside the state,” Sawant said.
The Chief Minister denied community transmission in Goa, saying that infection spread was local at present. Nearly 2,000 persons live in the Mangor hill area.
“There is local transmission in one area, so we have converted it into a containment zone. We are trying to get in touch with persons whom residents of the containment zone may have met. Our next strategy depends on the test results of these contacts,” Sawant said.
The Goa government may consider delaying the reopening of places of worship in the state in view of a spike in coronavirus cases.
Speaking to reporters, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that the state had also not taken a decision on reopening of educational institutions for the new academic session.
Asked if the state would allow reopening of religious places to the devotees, he said: “Currently, it is a local transmission, but if the transmission spills outside the Mangor hill area, the government will take a decision keeping this factor into account.”
Asked about the likely date for reopening of schools, which conventionally open in the first week of June, Sawant said: “No decision has been taken yet”.
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