It happened again. Hardly had the grocery stores across the State opened on Friday morning, when in many places crowds rushed to purchase whatever they could lay their hands on. Social distancing norms were ignored, as people elbowed each other to reach the storefront and pick up the essentials that were on sale. This is what Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant had feared and this was the reason why he was hesitating in opening stores selling essential items. Despite the requests, advice and pleas to maintain some semblance of a queue and not to rush at the same time, at certain places people did push, jostle and shove in their eagerness to purchase essentials.
The Chief Minister was quite clear when announcing the opening of stores that it was now the responsibility of the people to take precautions. He also hinted that he had taken the decision due to pressure from certain quarters, the opposition in particular. His exact words were, ‘Now the government has no control over the people and it is the responsibility of every individual, and those instigating people, to ensure that COVID-19 does not get transmitted and Goa has no more cases.’ The people neither heeded the advice nor did they take the CM’s words seriously, when the stores opened on Friday morning.
For what occurred on Friday morning at various stores across the State, one cannot blame the administration for not having a system in place to avoid overcrowding. With the publicity that COVID-19 has received, and the constant messaging of avoiding personal contact, it was up to the people to have taken all possible measures to stay safe. This is a complete failure on the part of the citizenry to maintain a reasonable amount of distance between each other to prevent the possibility of them contracting the COVID-19 infection. Across the world people are maintaining a safe distance between each other, why couldn’t it be done in Goa?
With the three positive cases in the State, it is extremely important for the people to take all possible precautions to avoid the virus from spreading. It has been seen that COVID-19 gets transmitted geometrically and one person can infect a large segment of the population, depending entirely on the number of people he or she has come into contact with, which makes it imperative that suspected or high-risk contacts are kept in quarantine. In such a situation, all care is little and it is important for each person to take the little precautions themselves to stem the spread. This didn’t happen when the people went out shopping on Friday. It is imperative, now that there are clear instructions that the stores will stay open, that crowding in front of them is avoided.
At the same time, there were places where the people did maintain a system of social distancing, with the queue – due to the distance between persons – stretching several metres and in some cases even going around a city block. That’s what is important – maintaining a gap between two persons. The Chief Minister has again, with his hands folded in appeal, asked the people not to move out of the houses as there is every possibility of community transmission. Can Goans now rise to the occasion and keep a distance between each other so as to themselves stay safe?
The number of cases in the rest of the country is increasing. India is still not in the third phase, but that can change anytime. When that happens, containing the spread will be difficult given the population density if the country. The only manner in which it can be done is staying indoors and not moving out unless it is absolutely required. Only that can keep Goa safe.
