THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Earlier in the month public health researchers asked Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to present evidence after he asked people to have dark chocolate with 70 per cent cocoa content to beat COVID-19 related stress. Vardhan’s tweet, suggesting a range of foods including dark chocolate to boost immunity and beat stress, also urged people to have vegetables and fruits to increase their vitamin and mineral content. Last week Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertiliser D V Sadananda Gowda sought to know whether people in the government should hang themselves for their failure to produce vaccines as was directed by the court.
These are just two of the tone deaf communications which exacerbated the problems on the ground. The paucity of oxygen, the dithering with regards to imposing a lockdown, the uncertainty with regards to the availability of vaccine have all lea Goa to the unprecedented situation it finds itself in – a death rate that has been steadily climbing and an infection rate that only now is showing signs of slowing down.
One has to only look at the figures from the end of the last month till May 13, the period of the lockdown followed by restirictions, followed by the curfew to understand the situation.
GOA
That was the state of affairs in Goa. Let’s look at Mumbai over the same period of time. (See Goa Table)
MUMBAI
The numbers indicate Mumbai appears to have got its act in order. The number of people recovering and not dying is very visible in the numbers. So what went wrong for Goa? (See Mumbai Table)
“I don’t have any answers as to why the number of infections or the death rate is not reducing. Everyone is stretched to the limit. We have 30 beds and we have 30 patients. We are full and we are being stretched. That’s all I am willing to say,” Sagar U of Mothercare Hospital, Margao told Herald.
But there is the question of whether Goa delayed in bringing in a lockdown and curfew. “We are behind Delhi and Mumbai by 15 days. We have not peaked. In ten days it will start dropping. The death rate is connected to the infection rate. It is usually 1.5 percent of the infection rate which is an international standard. We are a small population so the death rate gets all the prominence,” Dr Shekhar Salkar of Manipal Hospitals said.
But the problems in Goa are more than just that. Dr Pankaj Naik Nodal officer Healthway hospital has a different take. “The support care system is lacking, in many cases when patient are positive, they don’t isolate, they are roaming around. They do not inform society and spread the virus. Many of them don’t have a triage system meaning someone to provide them with food, medication etc everyday,” he told Herald.
That, however, would also be the problem in Mumbai and other cities. Here’s how Mumbai managed it. ““When it all started in Worli Chawl we promptly declared it a containment zone. We commenced treatment and we also started contact tracing of everyone who were positive. We moved ahead. We created more containment zones. We kept those who were symptomatic separate and those who were asymptomatic separate. Those who had children, we took care of them, provided them with food twice a day. Those who have a ration card were given groceries. We created a jumbo covid centre with beds around Mumbai. We also used a Mahda building which was empty to treat people. We set up a liquid oxygen plant in 4 hospitals. There is a 240 metric tonnes plant in the city. We had stock of medicines,” Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar told Herald.
What did Goa do? While Mumbai was putting its house in order, in Goa the following discussion was going on.
On April 26 Health Minister Vishwajit Rane tweeted, “In view of surge in deaths due to COVID-19, we shall be holding an emergency meeting with the Hon’ble CM @DrPramodPSawant to deliberate on stringent measures to be put in place. In addition to that, Goa definitely needs to go under lockdown on lines of other states like Maharashtra & Karnataka for a particular period. More than economic activities, the lives of the people matter to us. I am confident that Hon’ble CM will be supportive.”
In reply, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant said, “I have seen the tweet and will speak to him personally… If we do a lockdown, we will witness the situation of last March, April and May, and labourers will start leaving the state. Construction activities will come to a standstill.”
There is no doubt that Goa delayed in imposing restrictions and then as cases rose, there were less beds and other logistic problems.
“We cannot deny there have been logistical problems too. Too many cases and less beds. There was a great deal of pressure on hospitals. We have 5000 beds in Goa but 2500 Covid cases and please remember there are other patients too who need treatment for Cancer etc. All these things happen during a pandemic. Now patients are coming in large numbers. It will even out shortly. We have to do an audit to find out if we could have saved people who died,” said Salkar.
But, interestingly, doctors themselves admit that influence is playing a role in who gets what treatment. If you look in Goa, if there is a young patient and an older patient, invariably due to influence or an ability to pay, the bed is taken by the older patient. This also explains why young people have also died in certain cases. Look at Mumbai, they have done a excellent job. They were strict and enforced that the system that was designed was followed. Now the number of cases is reducing,” Naik said.
Mumbai did it right and have also planned for what can and may come next. “With regards the future the medical experts have told us that it could affect children. We are making all the arrangements. Arrangements for parents are being made and are making arrangements to ensure the virus does not spread in the third wave,” Pednekar, speaking from Mumbai, said.
