Margao
Doctors in the ESI Hospital in Margao, officers from the South Goa Collectorate and police intervened on Wednesday to calm down the perturbed United Kingdom (UK) returnees, who have been quarantined in the COVID-19-designated hospital and are awaiting results of their samples since over the last 14 days.
The samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune to test them for the new strain of COVID-19 that was originally detected in the UK.
After convincing the patients on Wednesday, swab samples of 19 of the 29 UK returnees were sent for RT-PCR testing, based on which the next course of action will be taken.
Late Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning, the 29 UK returnees created a scene at the ESI Hospital, voicing their opinions and objections at not being given their test reports. Their samples have been sent to the NIV for genomic analysis.
To help calm the perturbed patients, ESI Hospital medical superintendent Dr Vishwajit Phaldesai, along with Salcete mamlatdar Pratap Gaonkar, explained the situation and convinced the UK returnees to undergo a RT-PCR test.
Speaking about the incident, Gaonkar said, "Around Tuesday midnight, 29 travellers, who have returned from the UK and were quarantined in the ESI Hospital with their NIV reports pending, began