Yes, the curfew has brought a huge dip in COVID19 cases. The positivity rate which was 51 p.c in early may has now come down to 13 p.c on Sunday. However, the chief minister and the health minister cannot claim any credit for themselves as they had left the people to fend for themselves during their cold war. After all they were the ones responsible for rise in case in the State by keeping Goa free for all.
Suraj Nandrekar,
Editor, Goemkarponn
What is the meaning of curfew? As what people understand, it means a regulation requiring people to remain indoors between specified hours.
We have heard of curfews during violence, especially places like Kashmir and other places, where people had to stay indoors and strict action was initiated if anybody violated the same.
Here in Goa, the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant announced State-wide curfew in wake of surge in COVID19 cases since May 9.
Essential shops were opened from 7 am to 1 pm, which has now been extended to 3 pm.
But what we see in Goa is a totally different kind of curfew. Except for the closure of essential shops post 1 pm there is no change.
People are still unnecessarily moving around, traffic is as normal as it could be. People are going for strolls unnecessarily on the beaches. We can also see people gathered at many places just for a chit-chat.
Yes, the curfew has brought a huge dip in COVID19 cases. The positivity rate which was 51 p.c in early may has now come down to 13 p.c on Sunday.
However, the chief minister and the health minister cannot claim any credit for themselves as they had left the people to fend for themselves during their cold war.
After all they were the ones responsible for rise in case in the State by keeping Goa free for all.
The credit has to go to the doctors, nurses and support staff for bringing down the COVID cases.
Even after the second wave caused a disaster with over thousand lives lost, the State government is still not ready with infrastructure for the anticipated third wave.
While there have been Oxygen tanks set up at Super Speciality block and the GMC, there is no sign so far on the Oxygen plants allotted to Goa through PM Cares Fund.
The Chief Minister has announced several times that the new plants would come up by May 15 and was held up only because the compressor is not come.
We are almost reaching June 15 and still there is no sign of Oxygen plants. Government still keeps on saying compressors not received.
When the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister of Country Amit Shah has announced the transportation of COVID-related products need to be given priority, one wonders why the compressor is not received yet?
The only conclusion could be that the health department, which is involved in several COVID related scams, isn’t interested in the plant as it would stop their daily meter of purchasing Oxygen from M/s Scoop Industries.
