Woman, 76, dies of Covid-19 as Goa reports highest single-day spike

PANAJI: Goa recorded its third Covid death on Saturday after a 76-year-old woman from Fatorda with co-morbidities succumbed to the infection at the ESI hospital in Margao. The state also saw it’s highest single-day spike, with the detection of 89 new cases, taking the state’s active Covid count past the 700-mark.
The deceased woman was taken to ESI hospital in “very bad shape” with bilateral pneumonia.“When she first fell ill, she was treated at a private hospital in Margao and discharged,” an ESI doctor said. “When her condition deteriorated, she was brought to our hospital. She had shown improvement, but died at 8.45pm.”

Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai said that the woman contracted the disease from Ambelim. “I have spoken to health minister Vishwajit Rane and South Goa collector Ajit Roy to speed up contact tracing,” he tweeted, adding that he wanted the area declared a containment zone. Ambelim on Saturday saw four more positives, taking its tally to 31, while Margao has 14 cases.
Meanwhile, another area in the vicinity of Vasco, Zuarinagar, reported 24 cases. Of the 35 swabs collected from the slums in the area, 16 have returned positive, said Cortalim MLA ALina Saldanha. A dedicated team from the Cortalim health centre has been deployed in the slums.
The Zuarinagar cases add to the area’s already alarming tally that includes cases in Baina, Sada and New Vaddem, which together have 153 cases. The Mangor Hill containment zone also reported 12 new cases on Saturday.
A Vasco doctor said that some parts of the port town are so thickly-populated, it’s impossible to maintain social distancing. “I’m not surprised by the increasing number of cases in Vasco compared to other parts of the state,” he said.
Fifty patients were cured and sent home on Saturday, a day that also saw an isolated case reported in Pilar. A single-digit rise in cases was also reported in Bicholim, Canacona and Sakhali, while Ganganagar in Mapusa added four new cases to its count, taking the town’s tally to six.
Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza shot down a demand to close the popular Mapusa market for a few days, saying it was not required. “The market has been allowed to function with social distancing norms in place,” he said.
Saturday’s death was the state’s third, after two men aged 85 and 58 earlier died of the infection. The Covid hospital currently has four patients in ICU. All of them have co-morbidities, a doctor said, and their condition is stable.