47 more test positive, Goa's active Covid-19 cases at 69

Panaji, June 3 (IANS) Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said, here on Wednesday, 47 new coronavirus cases had been identified and any decision on further lockdown relaxations would depend on whether transmission had spread out of the cluster or not.

The case count, the biggest on a single day, takes the number of active cases to 69.

Of the new cases, 40 had been reported from South Goa's Mangor hill area, he said and added, it had been declared a containment zone and tests were being carried out.

"Of the 200 people tested at Mangor hill, 40 came out Covid-19 positive," Sawant told the media at the state Secretariat.

The first Covid-19 cases in the Mangor hill area were detected on Monday, when several members of a family tested positive. Sawant said the family was not coming clean on how they got infected.

"The family is trying to hide something. We suspect a couple of reasons. Either somebody from outside came in contact with them or one from the family returned from outside the state," Sawant said.

The Chief Minister denied community transmission in Goa saying the spread of infection was localised at present. Nearly 2,000 people live in the Mangor hill area.

"There is local transmission. We have converted it into a containment zone. We are trying to get in touch with persons whom residents of the containment zone may have met. Our next strategy depends on the test results of these contacts," Sawant said.

Reacting to the spike in cases, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat urged the Chief Minister to maintain complete transparency on Covid-19 testing protocol and also demanded a white paper on the government efforts to curb the coronavirus spread.

"I hope Mangor Hill is not the tip of an iceberg. The government must immediately release white paper on the Covid-19 situation in Goa and maintain complete transparency in coronavirus testing protocol," Kamat said.