india

Updated: Mar 19, 2020 09:05 IST

A former Goa minister, who recently returned from Dubai, has refused to isolate himself over coronavirus fears, claiming that instructions issued to him by the state health department were politically motivated.

Francisco “Mickky” Pacheco was one among 43 passengers on board the Dubai-Bangalore Air India flight. It later became to the knowledge of authorities that a 67-year-old passenger on board the flight tested positive for coronavirus disease Covid-19 in Bengaluru, prompting Goa health department to trace and identify the 43 passengers on board the flight to get them to self quarantine.

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“I will not go to quarantine because there is no reason for it. This is political vendetta because I am campaigning against the BJP,” Pacheco told reporters on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Goa Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane addressed a press conference where he claimed that a politician on board the flight was advised quarantine but declined to name him citing ‘privacy.’

Among the 43 people who deboarded the flight in Goa, five have been identified as being seated in the immediate vicinity of the patient who tested positive and have been quarantined at a hospital and will remain there for the next two weeks.

Pacheco, who was a minister under former chief ministers Manohar Parrikar and Digambar Kamat as part of different governments, currently holds no post but has been active in campaigning against the BJP in the local district panchayat elections.

Pacheco confirmed that he was on the flight, but said that he was not seated in the immediate vicinity of the passenger who was tested positive.

“I was seated in the fourth row on the AI-994 from Dubai to Goa enroute Bengaluru. But there was no one the five rows behind me. Then how can I contract coronavirus. This is being done to harass me in front of my supporters and family,” Pacheco said.

According to Pacheco, three teams from the state health department turned up at his house, but he asked them to go.

Goa is yet to register its first positive case of the coronavirus but around 53 people have been quarantined, excluding the passengers on board the flight.

Rane also said that Goa would also introduce hand stamps for persons who have been advised home quarantine just like is being done in Maharashtra as part of measures to slow the spread of the disease.