Goa As A Nightmare

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Goa As A Nightmare

Thursday, 20 May 2021 | Arun Sinha

Goa As A Nightmare

The State's mismanagement of the second wave of COVID is appalling

Goa, a global tourist destination, has turned into a nightmare with the disastrous mismanagement of the COVID situation by the State Government.  A week ago, the COVID positivity rate in the State shot up beyond 55 per cent, the highest in the country. Such a high positivity rate showed that the pandemic was spreading at an uncontrollable pace. In the first wave, to many Goans, COVID was still distant. It happened to people not known to them, far away from their neighbourhoods. In the second wave, everyone has their close relatives, friends or colleagues infected. It was like a surge that was barred in the first wave that turned into a deluge in the second wave and flooded the whole city. The deluge could have been barred too. But the State Government did not take it seriously. It had controlled the first wave effectively, bringing down infection rate to nearly zero. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane were too pleased to go on local and national television to pat their backs for Goa’s achievement amid appalling mismanagement in most other states.  They thought that just as they had reined in the first wave they would tame the second. They approached the second wave with a war rhetoric full of bravado and no guns. “We overcame the first wave. We shall overcome the second too”—was their message to the Goans through their daily press briefings. But in reality they did little more than the routine things. They did not devise a strategy to stop the deluge. The preventive side was totally absent from their strategy; they entirely relied on the curative side.  Such a strategy worked in the first wave because, thanks to a long countrywide lockdown, the number of cases was low. Goa had a good health infrastructure and good doctors, both in the public and the private hospitals, so they provided good care to the patients. The mortality was low, and there were still extra beds. But dealing with the second wave with the same kind of strategy—no strong preventive measures and reliance solely on curative measures—proved horrendous.

The Chief Minister refused to order a lockdown even after the two large States of Maharashtra and Karnataka flanking Goa, ordered a lockdown. He even rejected suggestions for making a COVID negative certificate compulsory for people travelling to Goa from Maharashtra and Karnataka. He did not shut down the hotels and restaurants. He did not close down the casinos.  Pramod Sawant was handpicked by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to become the Chief Minister of Goa after Manohar Parrikar, who was a strong personality in regional politics, passed away two years ago. Sawant lacks the charisma and leadership qualities of Parrikar. Midway he started saying that there is absolutely no need of a lockdown as COVID protocol and vaccination would control the pandemic.

However, he did nothing to enforce the COVID protocol. He let public meetings be held, many of which he addressed himself, for the municipal elections. He did not post policemen at public halls or star hotels to enforce the ceiling on crowds. He did not restrict crowds on the beaches and at nightclubs and discos. As for vaccination, he failed to procure vaccines, delaying inoculation of the 18-44 age group. With such gross mismanagement, it was hardly surprising when hospitals ran short of ventilators and oxygen, and people started dying in large numbers. It was only when the deluge threatened to drown his own future that Sawant ordered a lockdown. He realised that though a lockdown was against Narendra Modi’s mantra, it alone was going to help him save himself politically. He has to seek a popular mandate in nine months.

(The author is the Editor, Navhind Times, Goa. The views expressed are personal.)

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