Lockdown order vague, issue strict one, says Goa science and technology minister

PANAJI: Pointing out that the lockdown order issued by the state government on Wednesday lacks clarity, science and technology minister Michael Lobo on Thursday demanded that the order be redrafted and issued so that it stresses on breaking the Covid chain by following a strict lockdown.
“If you read the order, it is not a lockdown, and there is a need to bring in changes to the order,” he said, adding that restaurants should stop and only takeaways allowed.
Lobo said that he spoke to chief minister Pramod Sawant, the district collector and BJP state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade to demand a stringent lockdown.
He criticised the fact that most shops are allowed to remain open.
“What does that mean. Glass shops will remain open,” he said. “People will come out of their houses and gather in large numbers in shops. What’s the problem if shops are closed for four days?”
Lobo also said that except supermarkets, all other shops should be closed. “The time will come when people won’t even get place to sit in a hospital. Today, Covid patients have to sit on wheelchairs or stretchers,” he said.
He said that Sawant should take measures like those taken in Candolim and Calangute. “We are not saying it is a lockdown,” he said. “We call these preventive measures. People have voluntarily closed their shops. We have requested them to follow preventive measures to break the Covid chain.”
Lobo said that restaurants would be closed in Calangute and Candolim, except for takeaways. He also said that PM Narendra Modi and other world leaders also endorse people staying indoors to break the chain.
Although chief minister Pramod Sawant had on Wednesday afternoon announced a four-day “lockdown” from April 29 to May 3, in the evening, the two district collectors issued a ‘lockdown’ order which was contradictory to Sawant’s announcement that other than essential services, life in Goa would come to a standstill.