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Covid-19: Goa crisis worsens with 13 more succumbing to virus

Panaji - Patients struggling to get beds in Goa medical college and hospital.

The Covid crisis in Goa worsened on Friday with 13 more deaths and hundreds of patients struggling to get beds at the Goa medical college and hospital.

About 75 Covid patients have succumbed since Tuesday, according to Vijai Sardesai, former deputy chief minister of the state. His Goa Forward Party, which was an ally of the ruling BJP till last month, filed a police complaint against chief minister Pramod Sawant and top government officials on Friday.

The Congress, which is also planning to file a criminal case against the state government, described Sawant as an “ineffective and defective” chief minister.

Goa’s hospitals including are flooded with patients and there are no beds or other facilities for them. Hemant Kambli, whose brother-in-law passed away, was highly critical of the facilities at the main Goa medical college and hospital.

“I did not get a bed and there are no staff available,” he told the media. “We ourselves have to take patients inside the hospital. When we got the bed, it did not even have a mattress. I brought a mattress from my home.”

Worse, there is no oxygen and he had to pay a hefty amount to buy a cylinder. “There are no medicines, no staff. Everything is dependent on the patient's relative. Nothing was learned from the first wave,” he added.

Kambli described the ‘horrible conditions’ at the hospital. “Me and other family members risked our lives and stayed inside the Covid ward. Now I don't know if we are positive too,” he said. “Something needs to be done at the earliest. There are patients inside the hospital storeroom, such is the condition.”

The state has a positivity rate of 51 per cent, while the recovery rate is just 71 per cent. The government has also been pleading with the Goa bench of the Bombay high court, blaming the delays for the logistic issues involved in manoeuvring tractors carrying oxygen trolleys.

Goa reported almost 2,500 new cases on Friday and 62 deaths in 24 hours, taking the total active caseload to nearly 33,000 and 2,000 deaths.