Goa has extended the curfew with the current restrictions for another week, which means it will be in place till the end of this month. The options before the State are few as the test positivity rate is still high, in the 30s. The positive outcome is that cases of Covid-19 and deaths resulting from the virus have begun to show a declining trend, as had been predicted that this would happen in mid May. Simultaneously, the government has galvanised into action to introduce innovation in the treatment protocol and beginning this weekend, patients who have isolated at home will be monitored via a tech-based portal with interactive voice response system.
Covid-19 patients at home will receive a call and will have to answer five questions and based on the response they will be contacted by a doctor if there is need for a further consultation. This reduces the pressure on the doctors that for the past weeks have been burdened with making calls to patients and recording the responses and assessing the need for further consultation and treatment. Goa has offered home isolation to Covid-19 patients since the first wave. It had a battery of doctors making phone calls, including those of the Indian Medical Association Goa Branch who volunteered for this, and later withdrew when cases began to decline. Had such a tech-based system been devised earlier it would have eased the strain on the doctors to a considerable extent.
This is just one example, but it is one more indication of just how unprepared the government was to meet the second wave of the coronavirus. That the IMA doctors too stopped their tele consultations proves that the pandemic situation was completely misread by the government and the medical fraternity. Whether it was the imposition of producing Covid-19 negative by travellers, or making arrangements to augment the oxygen supply at the Goa Medical College, or making data of bed availability to people, or even security for staff at hospitals, the government acted after it was directed to do so by the High Court of Bombay at Goa. What does this say of a government that acts only after the judiciary has been petitioned to direct it? It is not responsive to the emergent situation. Either the government did not see the need to get the systems in place for the impending second wave or it plain ignored them.
The layman would not be aware of the oxygen supply system prevailing in the Goa Medical College and the need to change or improve it. But every Goan was clear that tourists entering the State should have been made to produce Covid-19 negative certificates on entry. Instead, not only was this not imposed, but the government hosted an exhibition of handicrafts in Panjim that drew thousands of people and where social distancing and wearing of masks was ignored. The inauguration of the Hunaar Haat on March 28 and its continuation over the next few days while cases were rising is another piece of evidence of how the government ignored its own pandemic protocols. The result – increase in cases and deaths due to Covid-19.
A government that fails to see what’s unfolding before its eyes cannot claim to be alert to the situation or working in the interests of the people. This is not just about the administrative decisions that caused oxygen level drops in the Goa Medical College, this is about not heeding protocols of the World Health Organisation that could have saved the State from seeing such high numbers of cases and deaths. In a small State like Goa when the daily case load crosses 4000 and deaths reach a daily high of 75, proves that the decision taking was flawed. It cannot repeat in case there is a third wave.
