Today, after a long lockdown that has been an experience like no other, Goa takes major steps towards returning to a form of normalcy. As the nationwide lockdown gets extended by a fortnight, Goa that has been classified in the Green Zone, as it has no active COVID-19 cases, is among those States that can open up the most. Almost all economic activity can take place in the State. The exceptions include hotels, restaurants, malls, cinemas, theatres and religious places. It is these places where there is the largest agglomeration of people and where it would be difficult to maintain any social distancing measures.
Today, a large number of people who have not left their homes for the past 40 days will step out of the doorways and onto the street. In addition, a number of vehicles that have not been driven or ridden on the roads will also be back on the roads today. Therefore, the streets of the towns and the village roads and the highways that in the past weeks have been almost deserted, are going to be filled with traffic. And herein lies the crux of the matter. Goa is in the Green Zone, but it does not mean that it is free of COVID-19. Nobody can know that for sure.
The State is free of active cases as all seven of its positive patients have now tested negative, have been discharged and been sent home. That Goa is free of active cases is a certainity, but on a daily basis there are a number of persons who are being placed in isolation at the Goa Medical College and in quarantine at other government facilities, as they display the symptoms of COVID-19, but tests carried out on them have all been negative. Goa has to remain that way. It cannot allow the Green Zone to be re-categorised into an Orange or Red Zone, which could happen in case of further positive cases.
Goa has, this far, been spared a major outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Now, as the State returns to increased economic activity which includes public transport though at a reduced amount, it has to ensure that it avoids the second wave of the virus that is always a possibility of occuring. It would be naïve to imagine that Goa is entirely safe from the virus. There have been asymptomatic patients across the world and Goa has only tested those who have shown symptoms and have turned up at government hospitals or been referred to the State facilities. It is after the survey that was conducted last month, that it identified some 5000 persons for screening.
The contagion passes by close human contact – touch, coughing or sneezing close to another person – and here is where the people have to take precautions. To avoid the virus, social distancing and the use of face masks in public places is important. Goans appear to have learnt that quite fast, as it is rare to see a person on the street without a mask or even a group of people huddled together. The queues outside the stores are orderly and the rush that is seen in public places missing. But, and herein lies the question: how will the public transport be managed beginning today.
A person who wants to pick up an item from the store may wait patiently for his turn, but a person who wants to get home at the end of the day after hours of work may not have the same patience. In the past we as a people have not been known to wait for the next bus because of lack of space, but will squeeze ourselves into the bus. With buses operating at 50 per cent capacity, but shops and other businesses opening, will the transport system be in a postion to handle the number of people who will be waiting for a bus ride? Besides, with buses taking off from busstands at 50 per cent capacity, what happens to the people who are waiting along the route to get in?
These may be issues that will have to be ironed out in the coming days, but more importantly, is how Goa reacts in case of a second wave of COVID-19. Will this lead to another round of a lockdown? Or will we be in a position to identify and isolate the contacts of the person who test positive and contain the spread. Only one of the seven positive cases was due to a local contact, so Goa does have a success rate in this. Can it keep a clean slate in the next round?
