PANAJI
Friday was yet another alarming day for Goa with 20 Covid deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the highest single day toll in the current, Omicron variant driven third wave which officials claim kicked in on December 28 last.
Friday's numbers spiked the State's pandemic death toll to 3,665 and in the last four days the disease has accounted for 50 deaths.
Nonetheless, the daily count of new infections and the positivity rate continued to drop. The Directorate of Health Services bulletin said, 1,322 of the 4,649 samples tested in the 24-hour period between the evenings of Thursday and Friday turned out positive with a positivity rate of 28.43%.
The State's active caseload also dropped to 11,903 with 2,668 declared as having fully recovered.
Meanwhile the unusually high mortality rate over the last week or so has spurred top doctors at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) to form a team to conduct death audits.
The team drawn from heads of departments at the premier health institution however is handicapped as genome sequencing has still not taken off although the machine has arrived.
"In the absence of genome sequencing, we are unable to know the quantum of Omicron variant cases which is very unlikely to kill. Possibly the more lethal delta variant is still the cause," said a senior doctor who did not want to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the press.
Another senior doctor said in several cases patients have been brought in to hospitals too late, perhaps because people feel they are infected with Omicron and will overcome the infection isolating at home when in fact it could be the Delta variant.
Also, in some other cases the deaths are due to severe and serious co-morbidity but since the patient has tested positive for the virus, it is certified as a Covid death, the doctor added.
