Goa: Chaos in Mangor Hill over delay in arrival of ambulance, testing too comes to a halt

VASCO: Chaotic scenes were witnessed in the containment zone of Mangor Hill on Friday afternoon after residents started to gather outside their houses. People were furious when an ambulance took more than two hours to arrive after five locals, including a two-year-old child, complained of uneasiness and fever. They were also upset that no essential commodities had been supplied to them till afternoon despite assurances from chief minister Pramod Sawant.
News about the delay in the arrival of the ambulance spread quickly and angry residents rushed out of their homes and spilled on to the roads.
They were already upset as they had queued up for around three hours in the morning waiting to be tested and had to return as the staff from the urban health centre failed to turn up. Testing of residents at the containment zone came to a standstill after seven health workers from the urban health centre (UHC) that had been on duty there tested positive for Covid-19. Councillor Fredrick Henriques said, “People stood in a queue from 9am till noon waiting for their check-up, but nobody turned up.”
According to councillor Yatin Kamurlekar, who rushed to the site along with Mormugao Municipal Council’s (MMC) chairperson Nandadeep Raut and other councillors, said since the ambulance did not arrive for almost two hours, the councillors arranged for a private vehicle and the patients were then moved to the sub district hospital at Chicalim.
The police standing near the barricades were seen requesting people to move inside their houses, but the crowd dispersed only after they were assured that prompt medical attention would be provided and that groceries would be made available.
Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida said he has asked the collector to keep an ambulance at Mangor Hill 24x7 exclusively for the containment zone.
Meanwhile, supply of groceries to the Mangor Hill residents commenced from Friday evening. However, the Vasco MLA said that “the arrangements made are not enough”. “There are many houses and not all are getting the supply of essentials. In fact, there are people who are starving as they are poor, and when they contacted their family and friends from outside the containment zone to provide them food, it was not allowed by the police,” Almeida told TOI. When contacted, the Vasco police said that initially they had no instructions to allow food inside the containment zone. “But, after the deputy collector and others came to the site and it decision was taken, people were asked to come and pick the parcels from their acquaintances without them being allowed into the containment zone,” a police officer said.
While rice and dal were being supplied free, the residents have been asked to call on the helpline number and place their orders for other groceries. “The groceries will be kept on a table and the persons concerned will be called up to pick their packets and drop the money into a box,” a member of the disaster management team said.