Goa registered 108 new cases of the coronavirus disease on Friday – its highest in a single day so far. The state also recorded two fresh fatalities due to the disease marking the worst 24-hour period Goa has witnessed so far since the pandemic began.
The deaths have left state authorities puzzled. One of them was a 45-year-old man who died within two days of reporting to a health care centre asking to be tested after developing mild fever. “It is a surprising case and a surprising course of events. The patient reported to the health centre with a mild fever for a test and since his symptoms were mild and not requiring hospitalisation, he was sent home until his test results came. But by the time the results came in and we sought to communicate it to the family he had already passed away,” health secretary Nila Mohanan said.
The other person was a 75-year-old woman who succumbed after days of treatment at a dedicated Covid-19 hospital.
Six people have succumbed to the disease in Goa so far while the infection tally stands at 1,684. Eight hundred fifty five people are currently under treatment.
The previous single-day spike in cases in Goa was recorded on Thursday when it recorded 95 new infections. This is the first time Goa has recorded more than a 100 cases in a single day. Of the active patients, around 85 are symptomatic and are being treated at Goa’s dedicated Covid-19 Hospital.
Meanwhile, health minister Vishwajit Rane said that the Goa government plans to commence plasma therapy for patients after getting permission from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
“Considering the rise in cases in our state, I had an interactive session to discuss plasma therapy in the state. We will be writing to ICMR with our proposal to conduct plasma banking and plasma therapy. We will also be hiring an MD and trained technicians on a contractual basis to run the Plasma transfusion medicine department,” Rane said.
