Quarantine facilities for 8,000 seamen: Chief minister Pramod Sawant

Quarantine facilities for 8,000 seamen: CM
TNN | Apr 20, 2020 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/quarantine-facilities-for-8...

Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said that the state government has already created the necessary coronavirus testing facility as well as identified quarantine facilities for nearly 8,000 seafarers. “We have identified around 8,000 rooms and now have to requisite the hotels,” Sawant told reporters. He said that nearly 20,000 hotel rooms are available in the state for quarantine facilities.

Sawant said that he has spoken to the Union ministry of external affairs and that the decision on how to get back stranded Goan seafarers, via sea or flight, is in the final stages. “Once this decision is made, we will immediately arrange for rooms to quarantine them,” he said.

As per the standard operation procedure (SOP) finalised by the ministry of shipping, Sawant said, in the first phase, seafarers whose ships are along the Indian Coast will be brought back to port via the sea route. In the second phase, those whose vessels are in deep sea will be brought to shore and in the final phase, seafarers who are already on shore abroad will be moved.

The union government is also planning to get back other Indians working abroad, he said.

Recently, families of seafarer had gone on a hunger strike demanding that they be brought back to the state.
Also speaking on the recently concluded door-to-door community survey, to identify people with Covid-19 symptoms, Sawant said the government will on Monday decide how many tests will have to be conducted. The government has identified 30,000 persons with respiratory diseases.