Under World Health Organisation guidelines, there have to be restrictions imposed once the positivity rate cross 5 per cent, however, the Health Department has not issued any new directives, though it will be monitoring the situation.
It is too early to state if this what is being witnessed at the current time is a fourth wave of the pandemic, but it cannot be overlooked that health professionals had predicted that a fourth wave of the covid-19 pandemic could hit Goa in June, and the Health Director’s statement that there has always been a four-month gap between waves. Therefore, as stated by the Health Director, the rise in cases cannot be ignored. This is a refreshing statement as in the past the government did ignore rising cases that led to the devastating second wave in April and May of 2021. Keeping that experience in mind, the government and the agencies associated with the health sector have to be on high alert to avoid a repetition of what occurred last summer.
The reassuring news is that it is the omicron BA.2 variant that is in circulation in the State. If there are no more mutations of the virus, then experts believe that there would be lower hospital admissions and death rate will be under control. The concerns, however, do not end there.
One major worry is the reopening of schools. As cases had dropped, schools opened their classroom for onsite teaching in February and the last two months of the academic year 2021-22 were conducted in schools. After the summer break, schools will reopen for the new academic year on June 6, but should COVID-19 cases continue to increase, extra precautions will have to be taken to ensure that children, especially the younger ones who have no protection as they have not been vaccinated, are kept safe. That is going to be quite a challenge to the authorities and the schools managements, but it’s a task that they have to undertake.
Goa’s is not an isolated example increase in COVID-19 cases. India reported 4,041 new Covid infections on June 3 – the highest single-day jump since March 11 – stoking fears of another wave building up. However, the daily positivity rate for the country was just below 1 per cent, though the weekly positivity rate has begun rising. The situation has led to the Centre asking the State of Maharashtra, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to ‘maintain a strict watch and take pre-emptive action’ to control the spread of Covid. Mumbai is seeing a surge in cases and hospitalisations.
The world has returned to its normal but the pandemic has disappeared entirely. The predictions that the world will just have to learn to live with COVID does appear to be coming true. The variants of the virus are still around and keep spreading, even as they remain highly transmissible. China reported an increase in cases and some other countries are also seeing a rise. Neither the world, nor India, nor Goa have seen the back of the COVID pandemic. It may have only subsided for brief periods, before returning. The State may not impose restrictions, but all precautions will be required to ensure that the virus does not spread as quickly as it did in the past waves.
