Bengaluru-based COVID-19 patient stirs politics in Goa

The presence of a 67-year-old Bengaluru-based coronavirus virus patient’s presence in a Dubai-Goa-Bengaluru flight on March 9, continues to stir COVID-19-laced politics in the coastal state. 

On Wednesday, former Tourism Minister Francisco Pacheco, who was also on the same AI-994 flight as the Bengaluru-based lady, alleged that the efforts made by the BJP-led coalition government’s Health Ministry to quarantine him because of his presence on the flight was politically motivated. 

“I will not go to quarantine because there is no reason for it. This is political vendetta because I am campaigning against the BJP candidates in the Zilla Panchayat elections,” Pacheco told reporters here. Zilla Panchayat polls in 50 constituencies are scheduled to be held on March 22. 

The former Tourism Minister also said that he had managed to evade efforts of three medical teams sent by the Health Ministry to his residence to quarantine him on Wednesday. 

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“They came with ambulances to quarantine me. How can I have had coronavirus when I was in the fourth row of the flight and there was no passenger for five rows around me,” Pacheco also said. 

Earlier, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane created a stir, when he said that a politician was among prominent people who were in the same flight as the Bengaluru-based coronavirus patient. 

“Around here, there were prominent people, who were there. Team has gone to trace and quarantine them. It is important to quarantine them. Everybody is equal. It is to do with the lives of the people,” Rane had said. 

43 passengers alighted from the Dubai-Goa-Bengaluru flight at Goa’s Dabolim International Airport on March 9 out of whom 30 have been home quarantined and efforts are being made by the state Health Department to trace eight passengers.

Goa has not reported a single confirmed coronavirus case yet, according to Rane.