Goa will test an additional 5,000 people who have reported symptoms of Influenza like illnesses (ILI) during the door-to-door survey that was conducted in the state earlier this month for the presence of coronavirus disease Covid-19.
While around 30,000 people with ILI and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) were identified through the survey, a list of 5,000 has been drawn up after excluding asthmatic patients and those who had no travel history or contact with people who had travel history.
The committee headed by Dr Jagadish Cacodcar, Professor and Head of the department of Preventive and Social Medicine at Goa Medical College and Hospital, has completed and submitted the report based on the data generated by the House-to-House survey.
“Around 5,000 cases having ILI symptoms, tests for which will be undertaken in a phased manner as per the testing protocol,” the Secretary Health said in a statement.
A three day door-to-door survey was conducted in Goa between April 13 and 15 in which government employees, including teachers, fanned out across the state to survey people for travel history, influenza like symptoms or a combination of both.
Goa registered seven coronavirus patients all of whom have since recovered prompting the state government to cautiously declare the state as a ‘green zone’. However, questions have been raised over the number of tests conducted pointing out that Goa has tested only around 900 people out of a population of 1.6 million prompting fears that some cases have gone under the radar.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said that the government would rely on the survey data to buttress his case that the state is indeed free of the coronavirus.
