Goa: Trouble in paradise, as Covid wreaks havoc

New Delhi - The raging Covid-19 pandemic stokes debate about Goans vs outsiders.

Why is Goa, the picture postcard and the tiniest coastal Indian state, in the headlines for all the wrong reasons? Trouble in paradise?

The state, whose population is less than 60 per cent of Dubai at around two million (m), is in the throes of an unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic.

Goans said the second and the more lethal wave of the contagion started around Easter in early April.

And on May 1, Goa notched an unflattering milestone, a record 54 people died of Covid-19. Why has Covid-19 struck Goa with such a vengeance in its second and deadlier wave?

“The state has only one tertiary health care centre, the Goa Medical College & Hospital (GMC&H), which is overwhelmed under the circumstances, as the state has never experienced a health care emergency of these epic proportions. Our front line personnel, battling the pandemic, is overworked and suffering from the contagion fatigue,” said Dr. Siya Caro, a paediatrician and an alumnus of GMC&H.

She has an insight into the health care institution, which has been in the eye of the storm since the intervening night of last Monday (May 11) and Tuesday (May 12), when 26 Covid-19 patients choked to their deaths because of an acute lack of oxygen amid the blame game in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government.

Altogether, 13 more deaths were reported between 2 am and 6 am on Friday (May 14) at the GMC&H as oxygen supply pressure dipped. So far, 74 people have died at the hospital due to an oxygen supply shortage in a span of four days.

Vivek Menezes, a Goan and an author-columnist, weighs in on the ongoing health care crisis, as the stark facts speak for themselves.

He has made his point succinctly in an article that appeared in The Hindu, a reputed English daily, on Saturday (May 15), quoting Nigel Britto, a journalist, that exposed the faultlines between Goans and non-Goans like never before.

“Goans represent less than 50 per cent of the permanent population of our state, and the pandemic has greatly accelerated this imbalance. There is immense concern about an unstoppable tsunami of disaffected urbanites decamping en masse from other cities and living out newly-minted Goa dreams,” Britto was quoted in The Hindu article.

Britto has captured the nub of the debate, which may seem parochial from a distance, but embodies reality bites that only Goans, resident or otherwise, can relate to with consummate ease.

Perhaps, in a globalised world, few can quibble over such localised sentiment, but the fact of the matter is Britto is spot on when he said: “neo-Goans and other settlers who can and will just up and leave, if things get really bad. [I don’t] think, they’re actually concerned about Goa and Gaons”.

Every calamity opens up fresh raw wounds, and the pandemic has stoked basic human instincts.

Data showed that Goa has reported over 133,000 Covid-19 cases, which is more than China, the world’s most populous nation and the initial epicentre of the contagion, and 1,998 deaths. Also, the idyllic state’s viral outbreak-related fatalities are higher than in Tanzania, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

The extent of the casualties is staggering amid infrastructure woes and blame game in the tiny state’s administration, where the Minister for Health & Family Welfare Vishwajit Pratapsingh Rane and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant are at each other’s throat over the Covid-19 management, or the lack of it.

Asked about the seeming disagreement that’s playing out in full public display, Ravi Dhawan, the state health secretary, tried to play down the rift and parroted the response that he gave to the High Court of Bombay in Goa on Friday (May 14). He maintained that logistical problems, not a shortage, were responsible for a drop in oxygen pressure at the GMC&H for six consecutive nights, echoing the assertion of CM Sawant.

But GMC&H’s alumni are at odds with Dhawan.

“The infrastructure is stretched. The doctor and the Covid-19 patients’ ratio has gone for a toss. The health care professionals are doing their best under the challenging circumstances, but that’s good enough to prevent loss of human lives,” said a private general practitioner, who is also an alumnus of GMC&H, who spoke to Khaleej Times on condition of anonymity.

Dr. Karo concurred with her alma mater’s observations.