The government appears to be gearing up for the third waveof Covid with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announcing that infrastructure isput in place while paediatricians are being trained. It is heartening to knowthat the government is farsighted, but this doesn't absolve it of the failuresof the second wave. It has to explain why people continue to die. Daily healthbulletins show a death toll of 35-45, and this is a huge number in a smallstate of Goa. What is going wrong, and why is there so much emphasis on thethird wave when the second continues to snatch lives?
The third wave which is expected somewhere around Septembercannot be a distraction. Yes, there is no harm in getting into preparedness,but we cannot lose sight of the fact that there are far more severe issuescurrently that are going unaddressed. The State government cannot expresshelplessness because the Covid war is being waged under the Centre's commandand the CM has to plead his case, just the way Delhi has done. We need to tryand save every single life and the failures cannot be put on the back burner.
If vaccines were supposed to be our saviour, where are thesevaccines? Goa has received only 32,000 doses for a population of 6.5 lakh inthe 18-44 age group, and there’s a faint assurance that we will get more dosesin June. With this pace, it would take beyond 2023 for Goa to reach completeimmunization. Finally, the government has asked the centre if it could usedoses from the above 45 categories for the 18+ group. Why was this notconsidered earlier when it was clear that all States are facing shortages?
In an interesting observation, the Goa Chapter of IndiaAcademy of Paediatrics (IAP) contended that the assumption of third-waveimpacting children is not backed by scientific data. They claim that there isno medical data to justify that the third wave is going to attack childrenunder 18.
There is so much medical data flowing that it has left the commonman confused and exhausted. Against all the theories and even a suspicion ofusing the third wave preparedness to mask the current failures, it is alwaysbetter to be guarded and safe than sorry. States have already swung into actionbased on threat perception. Delhi has announced a special task force to protectchildren while Karnataka plans to ramp up Covid care centres and set uprehabilitation centres for orphans. Goa too is setting up a paediatric ICU atGMC besides working on other logistics.
The fear of the third wave appears to be weighing heavily onthe minds of the government because of the High Court’s intervention. Goahasn't seen this kind of preparedness in the first and second phases. It wouldbe sad if this infrastructure is being put in place only because the courtasked for an account. People are dying. Stop the optics and feel the pain.
