The word lockdown has been very purposely left out from the announcement made by the Chief Minister. If a curfew, and not a lockdown, was the answer to the escalating cases of COVID-19 in the State and the rising positivity rate, shouldn’t it have come a lot earlier? Perhaps two weeks earlier? Or even before? But then, at that time Goa was still in election mode and the government didn’t see reason in bringing about any restrictions. It is now that the authorities have awakened to the seriousness of the pandemic, and is still laying the blame on the people for the rise in cases.
Announcing the curfew, the Chief Minister said that if people had followed the strict restrictions that had been imposed by the government, than Goa’s positivity rate would have not touched an alarming 51 per cent. The fact is that restrictions were imposed only on April 29 night onwards. Before that there were no restrictions of any sort in the State. Despite calls for stricter measures, the ongoing chorus from the government, the chief minister specifically, was that the situation did not warrant a lockdown. Well, if not a lockdown, why weren’t other measures brought about. Were the elections really necessary? Goa was all set to hold the Class XII and Class X Board exams and these were called off just two days before the HSSC exams were to begin. Just what strict restrictions are being spoken of here? And why is the blame always being laid upon the people?
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If it is the people whoa are a fault, Did the government have to wait till the point that has been described by the High Court of Bombay at Goa a ‘situation that is spiralling out of control’ to impose a curfew? The decision on the curfew was taken following a meeting of BJP MLAs, who unanimously endorsed a lockdown as a measure to rein in the virus spread, given, said Dy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, how bad the COVID situation was. This becomes ‘curiouser and curiouser’ as did the government wait for the situation to turn bad, before taking drastic measures? A curfew is a drastic measure. Perhaps it is even more serious than a lockdown and the only option as cases have rise to unbelievable figures, but there could have been a lot done before the State descended into the current circumstances.
Another of the Chief Minister’s assertions is that people above the age of 60 who can stay at home have been unnecessarily going out. What support does the government in Goa give to senior citizens that they can stay home and not move out? Are essentials delivered to them at their doorsteps? Or medicines for that matter? Goa has a large number of senior citizens who live alone as their children are working abroad. They have to move out for their supplies and for their errands, they have no option as there is nobody to do it for them. Goa does not have a system that the senior citizens can fall back upon.
For the next two weeks Goans remain indoors. Hopefully this measure will yield results and the spread of the virus will drop. People are dying and Goa just can’t take it anymore. Do not censure the people for the pandemic situation. There may have been a percentage of the people who did not adhere to the standard operating procedures and to the guidelines, but a majority did. The bottom line is that the government should have acted earlier, but didn’t. And that is the reason why we are now in a curfew, when stricter measures earlier on may have avoided this situation.
