Community testing need of the hour : Digambar Kamat

Digambar Kamat, Leader of Opposition, on Wednesday urged the state government to start community testing rather than conducting community survey, in order to control the spread of coronavirus.

Digambar Kamat, Leader of Opposition, on Wednesday urged the state government to start community testing rather than conducting community survey, in order to control the spread of coronavirus. "The medical fraternity and experts in virology have clearly emphasised on the need of 'community testing' as an effective step towards controlling spread of novel Coronavirus. The Government should immediately drop the idea of community survey and take pro-active steps to start community testing in Goa as a step towards controlling the spread of novel Coronavirus," said Kamat.

He further said, "It appears that the idea of Community Survey is without proper thought process. There is a high risk of the persons undertaking survey of getting exposed to the virus if they are not provided with PPE. The persons who will be sent for such survey also needs to be tested first to ensure that they are not the carriers of the virus." Meanwhile, he demanded a report giving details on the actual number of testings done in Goa and the samples sent outside Goa. "We need to know how many samples are tested on a daily basis and how much time is required to test each sample," he said.

The Congress leader also said, "The Government should also reveal its plan on its preparedness on taking up community testing. We need to have enough manpower to undertake this exercise in a time-bound manner. Has the government taken any steps to train staff to undertake Community Testing?" "I also urge the government to give actual data of number of persons working as frontline workers and whether each one of them is provided with Personal Protection Equipments (PPE)," he added.

The Opposition leader also said that the government must clarify the exact status of South Goa District Hospital as conflicting reports have emerged on completion and readiness of the same. As per the latest update on the website of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, till now the total number of positive cases in the country is 5274, of which 7 cases have been reported from Goa till now. (ANI)

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