Team Herald
MARGAO: The South Goa Collector on Sunday passed four different orders requisitioning the GTDC Hotel at Colva, MPT Hospital in Sada, Primary Health Centre in Shiroda and Government College at Quepem as COVID care centres for asymptomatic patients.
It is pertinent to note that the people in at least two of these localities have objected to the facility in their areas to which the Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said the sentiment of the people is important to the Government.
The Collector of South Goa has drawn four different orders in which he has requisitioned the four abovementioned facilities. There were dissenting voices against the facility from Shiroda and Colva too. The Collector in his order for the Shiroda COVID Care Centre has warned of action u/s 57 of the Disaster Management Act if any contravention.
The Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said, “With the ramping up of testing, no reports will remain pending beyond 24 hours. The Health Secretary has moved files to make Calangute COVID-19 care centre.”
The Minister said, “Public sentiment is very important for the Government and they can’t be road-rolled. We will ensure that the people are taken into confidence”.
Rane said, “Somewhere people must realise that those who are being lodged in COVID care centres are Goans, who have been living in Goa for several years. We have not brought COVID hospital to the South deliberately but with planning and scope of ramping up the facilities for the future”.
“The Health Minister is nervous on the situation and the cases have increased to such an extent that the Government has to now requisition school premises. This is indeed a community transmission state,” Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai claimed.
“Does the Colva GTDC hotel have the mechanism to take care of the COVID patients? Does a hotel become a hospital with an order? The Government has to answer me on why COVID patients are being brought to a hotel instead of a hospital, Mickky questioned while objecting to the COVID Care Centre at Colva.
