THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) Dean Dr Shivanand Bandekar on Wednesday said that the government is fully prepared to combat a second wave of a COVID-19 pandemic if it occurs and that there was need to be stringent with the Standard Operating Protocols (SOPs).
Bandekar said that the required infrastructure was intact while ESI Hospital was still under GMC administration. “There is no problem if we get a second wave of COVID-19. I only pray to Almighty that we should not get it. We should always follow SOPs properly,” he said.
The State-run GMC had enough beds for patients in case of a second wave of COVID-19 positive cases. “There are more beds which can be commissioned in South Goa District Hospital. Right now we are using only one-tenth of the capacity,” he said.
Bandekar also clarified that there was no plan to decommission the designated COVID-19 hospital. “My dream is to have zero fresh COVID-19 cases. We will conquer COVID-19 completely. We want to reduce COVID-19 wards in hospitals but there is no plan whatsoever to decommission COVID-19 hospital,” he said.
Bandekar cautioned that Goa is likely to get mutant cases of Coronavirus from the UK as a lot of Goans have settled there. “We had cases, it’s not that we did not have cases. It’s highly infectious. So there is need to be very stringent with the SOPs. Social distancing, wearing masks are a must. Whenever you go travelling also use face shield. This will help prevent spread of the virus,” Bandekar said.
The GMC Dean was also of the opinion that Goa too could ask for negative COVID-19 certificate from people coming from Maharashtra.
Reacting to a rise in COVID cases in Maharashtra and plans to go for a lockdown, Bandekar pointed out that people have been visiting Goa and the State being a touristic place, people cannot be stopped from entering.
“What we can do is that we too can demand latest RT PCR reports from those coming to Goa from Maharashtra like they are doing. It’s my request and not new SOP. This will help in filtering positive cases,” he said.
He added that 65 per cent of the health workers had been vaccinated in the State and rest of the people would also get vaccinated. Those not getting vaccinated had genuine reasons and they had explained that, he said adding, “They have some reasons. Some have allergy, some have problems like asthma. Some say they have auto-immune disease. Some say they already have enough immunity as they have recovered from COVID-19 infection. It’s totally voluntary. They know what is best for them.”
According to Bandekar, frontline workers were being vaccinated through the Collector's office as it had list of their names.
To a question, he said that people would get vaccines according to the policies of the Government of India. Bandekar said Covidshield was one of the best vaccines and being given for COVID mutant cases as well.
