Goa's COVID-19 tally crosses 50-mark with five new patients

The number of COVID-19 patients in Goa grew to 51 on Wednesday after five more persons tested positive for the infection, officials said.

The tally of active cases in the state is 44 as seven patients had recovered in April, they said.

The state was declared a green zone on May 1, after all the seven COVID-19 patients previously found had recovered. However, the coastal state has witnessed a rise in the number of cases over the last few days.

"Five more persons tested COVID-19 positive in the state on Wednesday, taking the tally to 51. Of them, 44 are active patients as seven patients had recovered and discharged from the hospital (in April)," a senior health department official said.

"One of the five persons that tested positive on Wednesday is a crew member of a ship, who arrived in Goa along with his colleagues in a chartered flight," he said.

The state on Wednesday received the first batch of 336 people, who worked as crew members on different ships. They arrived in two different flights from Italy, after which their samples were collected and taken for testing at the laboratory.

"The first flight carrying this particular crew member (who tested positive) arrived at 10.30 am. All of them were sent to a quarantine facility on their arrival," the official said.

Talking to reporters about the four other patients, state Health Secretary Nila Mohanan that three of them had returned from Maharashtra, while another one from Delhi.

"The condition of all the patients is stable," she said.

The Goa government has already set up in Margao a special hospital for treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Earlier during the day, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said that the bed capacity of ESI hospital has been increased from 60 to 170 with additional back up of 30 beds.

"...We also have a back up facility of adding another 30 beds which will take it up to 200 beds in a span of an hour, if needed," Rane said in a tweet.

So far, 10,136 samples have been tested in the state. Of them, 595 were tested on Wednesday, the health bulletin said.

Goa's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases: 51; new cases: five; deaths: zero; discharged: seven, active cases: 44; people tested so far: 10,136.