CM Pramod Sawant: If people cooperate, deaths will drop in 8 days

PANAJI: Chief minister Pramod Sawant said on Sunday that the deaths due to Covid-19 would “definitely reduce” in the next eight days “ if people of the state cooperate with the government”.
After visiting the step-up hospital at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium, Bambolim, the CM said that some Covid patients from Goa Medical College (GMC) would be shifted here. Sawant criticised the public for crowding at markets after his curfew declaration, as if everything would be closed. He also hit out at the opposition. “Instead of criticising the government, they should advise people on how to control Covid,” he said.
Sawant said that he has directed health officers to provide medicines in case of an oximeter shortage. “People should start medication immediately,” he said. “I have found that even after the oxygen level drops, people are not ready to shift till they get a private bed, and when there is a complication, they are shifted to hospital, and the government is held responsible.”
He also urged Covid-positive patients to get admitted to hospital as soon as possible. “People should proudly say that they are Covid positive, there is no stigma attached to it,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state has started recruitment of doctors, both medical (MBBS) and Ayush. “We will give them preference when we recruit in government hospitals,” he said.