Did Goa falter by easing SOPs? Doctors feel so

PANAJI: As the government grapples with increasing Covid-19 cases, several doctors believed that easing of the standard operating procedure may have been one of the reasons for spread of the virus.
“We must change gear now since we have more cases. I don’t understand how a visitor coming from Sri Lanka, which has less cases than India, has to undergo more scrutiny, while those coming from hotspots within the country can enter easily,” a pulmonologist said on condition of anonymity.
While international travellers are placed in paid institutional quarantine for seven days and under home quarantine for another seven days, as per the changed protocol, domestic travellers are asked to self-isolate themselves until their screening test results are known.
City physician Dr Oscar Rebelo said the least the government could do was to put the domestic travellers under quarantine till the swab results come. “If not institutional then they should be put under home quarantine,” Rebello said.
Cardiologist Dr Francisco Colaco said Goa has “stepped out of the green zone and headed towards a mess because something has drastically gone wrong”.
Though interstate travellers are tested, he said there is no reason why the state mustn’t be extra cautious and home quarantine all travellers, irrespective of their travel history.
Till the Mangor Hill transmission, as per the state health department records, almost 90% of positive cases were of people who had travelled from Maharashtra.
In a tame response to the rising cases, the Indian Medical Association said it has left it to the government to decide. “Testing everyone is practically not possible. Let us wait and watch how things unravel. Right now, the government is doing its best,” its president S Samuel Arawattigi said in a statement.
Another city pulmonologist said the best strategy would be to home quarantine a traveller, as the TureNat testing had its own limitations.
“A test coming negative is no guarantee that a traveller will not develop Covid-19 symptoms. Incubation period of the disease is long,” he said.
He also said that these travellers should be stamped and sent to home quarantine, “otherwise there is always a fear that they may walk around freely”.
A senior government official said since the health department is overworked, local self-bodies must be roped in for monitoring people in home quarantine.
“It would be more effective if ward members are involved. It would also help avoid unnecessary tension in any area or housing society due to rumours of a possibility of a positive case among them,” he said.