MARGAO
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday sought to reassure anxious Goans on the surge in Covid cases and shortage of oxygen and medicines, that neither oxygen nor Remdesivir is in short supply. He stated that the issues concerning oxygen supply to the hospital was resolved on Sunday.
The Chief Minister further said the government will lay stress on the ongoing Covid vaccination drive as well as Covid testing, promising to ramp up Covid testing to a whopping 5000 per day.
He said the bed capacity of the South Goa district hospital is being further enhanced by another 150, adding that another 60 beds will be added to the Covid facility at the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim.
After visiting the South Goa District Hospital on Sunday to review the logistics support, including oxygen for the patients, the Chief Minster said the state has sufficient stock of Remdesivir and all issues concerning oxygen supply has been addressed.
“I have checked with the authorities on Sunday and I have been told that we have received additional 1500 Remdesivir. I can assure you there’s no shortage of Remdesivir in Goa”, he said.
As far as oxygen supply is concerned, the Chief Minister conceded that there were some issues concerning supply of oxygen, but hastened to add that the issues now stand resolved and all the hospitals will receive the oxygen supply by Sunday evening.
“The government has given clear instructions to divert the oxygen for medical oxygen instead of industrial oxygen till we tide over the current situation. I can assure the people that medical oxygen will be made available to all the hospitals from Sunday,” he added.
Saying that the government will focus on the vaccination drive to cover maximum population during the short possible time, he said around two lakh people have already been covered by the ongoing vaccination exercise.
He said the state has received additional 1.5 lakh doses of the Covid vaccine. “We have set the target to complete 4.5 lakh people, aged above 45 years in the ongoing vaccination drive. This will reduce the complication in the people affected by the virus,” he added.
Admitting that Covid cases have been increasing by the day, the Chief Minister said the government is focusing on testing and tracking by ramping up the facilities. “Presently, testing have increased in a big way. We conduct over 3000 Covid tests a day”, he said, adding that the government has put in place a plan to increase the testing to 5000 people a day.
“I request all the people who are asymptomatic not to move around after testing as that would only spread the virus to their families and others. It takes two days for the test report to be out and it is in the fitness of things that the people isolate themselves till their test reports come,” he appealed.
To a question, the Chief Minister said that families facing problem of isolation can move to the Covid care centres such as the Fatorda stadium and the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium, saying the government will open Covid care centres if the situation warrants.
