PANJIM: Almost eight days after the government notified the Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Stadium as a Covid Care Centre, there is no work happening on ground zero, despite the number of COVID-19 cases rising on a daily basis.
On June 14, when the number of active cases was at 490, the administration decided to convert the Shyamaprasad Mukherjee stadium, the largest indoor stadium in the State, into a Covid Care Centre. An order was also issued but apart from that, nothing much seems to have happened.
On Monday, June 22, when the number of active cases reached 711, the Herald team visited the multi-purpose indoor stadium on Bambolim plateau to see the arrangements made for the Centre. However, they were aback as there was no movement on the ground.
Sources in the medical fraternity reveal that the State would need at least 10,000 beds in the next two months based on the Centre’s projections. Yet, at ground zero, the stadium was in total darkness as there was no electricity connection.
While the Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) office at this stadium has been temporarily shifted to the Bambolim Athletic Stadium; none of the other logistic-related arrangements for a COVID care centre, have been completed.
Some workers told the team that only a few hundred beds have been shifted here but that’s about it.
“There has been no electricity in the stadium for a week now. We have been told that there is a problem at the nearby sub-station,” the workers added.
The bathrooms were in a bad condition as well and no arrangements have been made for the medical staff as yet. “At this speed, it looks like the arrangements will take at least two months more for it to get completed,” a worker said.
However, Herald realised that the electricity issue was a major barrier for the arrangements to move ahead.
Lyndon Monteiro, OSD to the Power Minister, admitted that there was a power issue but added that it has been sorted now. “There was a problem with the isolator installed by GSIDC for the stadium and I am told that the problem has been rectified now,” he said.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has stated that the government wants to take up indoor stadiums instead of government schools and colleges given that a decision on school resumption would have to be taken in July. “Only about 200 beds will be there in one stadium so that the patients can be handled properly,” he said.
Besides, Shyamaprasad, the government has also decided to take up the Peddem indoor stadium besides the SAI Girls Hostel at Peddem as COVID Care Centres.
Sources in the government added that with the cases increasing every day, there is an urgent need of COVID care centres but lamented that the government is moving at a snail’s pace.
“This work should have been carried out during the lockdown, as the lockdown was announced for creating infrastructure for treatment of positive cases,” said a doctor, refusing to be named.
He added that the govt was in deep slumber and fooled itself as well as the people by stating that there is nothing to worry. “Now we are nearing 1,000 cases; just imagine what will be the scene if we have 5,000,” the doctor added.
