Rather irresponsibly, Rane also said that Goa would soon get 200 to 300 deaths a day and then withdrew the post from his social media. Even if this projection is right, should a minister post this in a public forum? Doesn’t such a statement also signify that he, the minister who handles the health portfolio, is helpless in saving lives?
Rane’s suggestion was that in addition to the measures that the State already has in place, ‘Goa definitely needs to go under lockdown on lines of the other States like Maharashtra and Karnataka for a particular period’. A meeting between the Chief Minister, the Health Minister and others after this statement, saw the head of government striking down the proposal for a lockdown and stating that if the situation worsens the government ‘can think about it’. He has not said it will happen, he has not said it won’t happen.
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Look at the rise in cases in Goa, they are now increasing by over 2000 a day and deaths on April 26 were 38. There is no clarity on what the Chief Minister meant when he said that ‘if the situation worsens’. What number of daily cases is he looking at to order a lockdown in the State? Could the people know so that they are prepared? The Centre, however, has released guidelines that focus more on containment of areas rather than State-wide lockdowns. Even that decision, of containment zones, has to be taken based on evidence and following analysis of affected population, geographical spread, health infrastructure, workforce, and the restrictions are to be imposed for 14 days.
This is what the Centre suggests for the containment zone if they are ordered – night curfew; banning social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural, religious, festival-related gatherings; Weddings are to be limited to up to 50 and funerals to 20; shopping complexes, movie theatres, restaurants and bars, sports complexes, gym, spas, swimming pool and religious places to be closed; only essential services to continue in public and private sectors; public transport to operate at half the capacity; no restrictions on inter-State and intra-State transportation of essential goods; offices to function with up to half their staff; industrial and scientific establishments allowed subject to distancing rules.
This has almost all the aspects of a lockdown, and Goa has already imposed quite a few of the restrictions. Except for banning some of activities and keeping restaurants, movie theatres open, most of the others are on, at least on paper. Yet, there is still that niggling doubt of what a night curfew between 10pm and 6am will achieve, especially when casinos are permitted to continue activities indoors? And though they have been restricted to 50 per cent capacity, is anybody checking that this is maintained? There has to be a mechanism to back the restrictions. Merely imposing restrictions won’t change the rising trend of the COVID surge, if they are not followed up with strict implementation.
The projection is that cases will reach a peak in May. Based on mathematic models the date for the peak of new cases was projected as between May 14 to 18, but the revised projection is that it will peak between May 4 to 8 and then begin to drop. Either way, we are still days away from that peak and the more cases we add, the more swamped are the hospitals and medical staff going to be. So Goa and India need to act now as every hour the numbers are increasing and so too are deaths.
