No need to fear formation of containment zones : Goa CM

With the Goa government setting up the state's second containment zone in the remote Ghodemal village of North Goa district after a number of coronavirus cases were reported from there, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday urged the people not to be afraid of these 'zones' which are formed to map the local transmission of the deadly virus and prevent the contagion from spreading.

"There is no need to fear formation of containment zones. It is a means to make people aware and alert, so that people don't come in contact with these areas," Sawant said.

The Chief Minister also said that a majority of the state's 394 active COVID-19 cases were asymptomatic and that only eight hospitalised patients required medical treatment to combat the infection.

"Most of the persons who have tested positive are healthy and asymptomatic," Sawant said, adding that in Chimbel, another slum cluster near Panaji which has seen six positive cases, an aggressive testing exercise was being conducted.

"All the three families were infected. We have quarantined them and the samples of the people living in the locality have also been sent for the test," the Chief Minister added.

A bulk of the state's active COVID-19 cases emerged from the Mangor hill area of South Goa's Vasco town, which was declared as the state's first containment zone by the district administration earlier this week.

In the second containment zone which was announced in Ghodemal village in the Morlem village panchayat jurisdiction in North Goa on Friday, more than 14 positive cases have been identified.