Goa governor: CM Pramod Sawant must get Covid act together, Delhi keeping an eye

PANAJI: In a scathing indictment of Pramod Sawant-led government over the mismanagement of the Covid situation in the state, governor Satya Pal Malik on Thursday said the government had erred in taking the correct decisions and warned the chief minister that Delhi was keeping a close watch on Goa’s Covid situation and Sawant should “pull up his socks”.
“The main problem is that we got satisfied at a time when we should not have been satisfied. When people were calling for a lockdown in Vasco, we did not do it. Now that it has increased, we are going for a lockdown. This is an error of judgement,” Malik said.
TOI on Thursday had pointed out how Sawant refused to lock down the port town—the epicentre of local transmission—despite his ministers, councillors and locals calling for it.
“Mangor Hill is responsible for the spread today. If we had done a lockdown, things would have been different,” he said. But Malik also clarified that he does not take these decisions and “I cannot intervene in the day-to-day functioning of the government”.
Malik also said the deaths taking place due to Covid cannot be simply classified as comorbid deaths and the government cannot wash its hands off.
“If a cancer patient gets Covid and he is sent to the Covid hospital, he is treated with paracetamol tablets. This cannot continue. I have given clear instructions to the government to treat patients with comorbidities properly and not put them under a similar treatment like the other patients,” he told TOI.
Malik said, in his review meeting with Sawant and health minister Vishwajit Rane, he also raised his concerns over the entire management of the pandemic in the tiniest state.
“There was a problem with the quality of food being provided at Covid care centres. There was no proper system in place to supply essential commodities at Mangor Hill. In Covid hospital also, they were not clear about anything,” he said.
TOI had highlighted how in the Covid care centres, patients were themselves cleaning the toilets and the waste was being piled with no one to clear it.
“I enquired with them whether essential commodities are reaching micro and containment zones and if yes, then what was the reason for agitation at Mangor Hill and Zuari Nagar,” Malik said.
He also asked whether the government had thought of any scheme for the daily labourers who are in the containment zone.
Malik said he asked Sawant whether there is any proposal to close Verna industrial estate, which as TOI had pointed out was the new epicentre for the pandemic and the route for Covid transmission in the state. “Will it not be advisable to impose a lockdown,” he said.
In his review meeting, which was also attended by chief secretary Parimal Rai and health secretary Nila Mohanan, Malik also took stock of the health infrastructure in the state and asked them why there was a delay in picking up Covid positive patients and transferring them to the Covid hospital or care centres.
“I have also enquired whether the government has adequate number of doctors and paramedic staff and whether they have all the facilities like ICUs, ventilators, oxygen cylinders, anti-virus drugs approved by ICMR,” he said.
The governor also enquired about the plasma therapy and the time taken for testing and sending the report.
Malik also enquire about the number of Covid care centres in the state, their capacity and where they are located and said that each taluka should at least have one care centre.
The governor also wanted to know the government’s plan on whether there was any new Covid hospital in the offing, if the current hospital was filled, and whether there were enough Covid ambulances and hearse vans and whether they were provided free of cost.
Malik said he was not saying that the government is not doing good work. “Departments, doctors, health minister… everybody is working day and night, but there are certain other things which has to be taken care of and that I have suggested,” he said.