On Saturday, Goa lost its third medical practitioner to COVID-19. The pandemic situation has not improved, on the contrary with the number of COVID-19 positive cases crossing 31,000 in the State, over 2 per cent of the population of Goa has already contracted the virus. Goa, again becomes the first State in the country to have 2 per cent of the population positive for the virus, and it is now clear that the spread is not declining in Goa. On a daily basis the number of people that are testing positive is on an average over 500, crossing 600 at times. From the manner in which the cases are rising, there is unlikely to be an appreciable decline in the number anytime soon.
Look at how Goa reached the 30,000 figure of positive cases. The first case of COVID-19 in Goa was detected on March 26. After six more cases, there was a long gap when Goa went into the Green Zone, but in mid-May, as railway services were restored it saw the number of cases rising. In early June, after the Mangor Hill episode, there was a spurt in cases and the number kept rising in the days ahead. Yet, it took months before the State saw the COVID-19 positive cases cross the 15,000 mark which would be 1 per cent of the population, given that the State has a resident populace of 15 lakh. That was on August 26, when the tally stood at 15,027. From then, to reach 30,000 it took just another four weeks when the number rose to 30,552 on September 24. The coronavirus cases doubled in four weeks and one day and have continued rising even after that.
The statistics of the deaths related to COVID-19 also show a big rise in September. On August 31, the number of COVID-19 related deaths was at 192. On September 26 it had risen to 391, which is over double what it was on August 31. The deaths in the current month include that of a 12-year-old boy, and persons of all ages and from across Goa. September till now, therefore has not been a good month for the State where COVID-19 has been concerned. Not much can change in the coming four days, but can the government take some stern measures to bring down the infection in October?
Though the government may claim that is is ably managing the situation arising from the pandemic, the ground reality is different. When Goa went into a lockdown and had time to prepare for the pandemic, the government created a single COVID hospital with 170 beds. The rise in cases in the months from June to September has forced the State to open more COVID hospitals, which indicates that the government was just not able to visualise how far the COVID situation would reach. The unpreparedness is a reason why the authorities are unable to bring down the contagion. It is only when numbers fall that Goa can breathe easy.
The large financial outlays for COVID-related expenses that have been on the higher side, have neither been able to stem the spread nor have they been able to reduce the deaths. While India’s total cases to million of population stands at 4225, in the case of Goa it is a high 20,666. In the deaths per million, India’s figure is 67, and Goa’s is again far higher at 257. The efforts to curb the spread have to take a sense of urgency and seriousness, if Goa is to achieve any success. October cannot be allowed to have more cases than September, as then the situation could only further worsen for the State.
