FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Copies of the letter have even been forwarded to the South Goa District Collector Office, besides Directorate of Health Services and other concerned authorities, making this a bigger issue than it should be. From the contents of the letter one can glean, though it is not fully clear, that the flats at the housing society and the hospital owner are the same and that this owner has allowed the hospital staff to stay there. The letter states that this is against the rules of the bye-laws of the society and no permission has been taken. If the letter had ended at that, it would have given rise to no further controversy.
But then the letter adds that the nurses and doctors who are staying in the flats attend to COVID patients at the hospital and further states, ‘This is a dangerous situation where our society may be contaminated by the coronavirus which may be transmitted by your employees. Therefore we request you to stop them from staying in our society during this pandemic.’ The crux of the entire issue was therefore that there was a ‘dangerous situation’ posed to the people of the society as the persons staying in the flats were doctors and nurses treating COVID-19 patients, who could potentially infect others.
Is this how civil society in Goa treats the frontline COVID warriors who are risking their lives to save the lives of others who have been infected by the virus? The letter that went viral on social media has drawn a lot of condemnation. It is clear that there is a lot of misinformation due to COVID that has led to such a complaint. Some 14 months ago, when the lockdown of March 2020 had been announced housing societies and gated complexes had shut their gates to visitors and had even put restrictions on residents who were part of the essential services from going out of their houses and returning. At that time, there was little knowledge of the virus. Now, it is known that there are precautions – wearing masks, hand hygiene and physical distancing – that can be taken.
The Union Health Ministry admits that coronavirus patients and those who have recovered from it are facing stigma in the country. The ministry also pointed out that there have been cases of healthcare workers, sanitary workers and police, who are in the frontline for management of the outbreak, facing discrimination on account of heightened fear and misinformation about the infection. It is the duty of enlightened civil society, and not just the government to change this attitude. In a State like Goa with a high literacy level, there should be no place for discrimination of those who are in COVID frontline. What’s the point of the government designating various professionals as frontline COVID warriors, if doctors and nurses are discriminated upon?
Goa needs to respond to the emergent situation with an enlightened mind and counter any prejudices. This may require a programme of information and messaging that reaches the people. The local MLAs, councillors, panchas have to take this up as a priority. Doctors, nurses, medical support staff deserve recognition for the work they are doing and should be supported, not discriminated. At the same time it is fulfilling to see a large number of youth, and others too, volunteering their services to the home isolated and also to patients in hospitals. They too require a big applause. To defeat the pandemic we will first have to fight the stigma that has come to be attached to it.
