PANAJI
The dreaded coronavirus continued to ravage Goa with 21 more succumbing to Covid in the 24-hour period between the evenings of Wednesday-Thursday and 1,410 more people being infected.
Goa's Covid-19 death toll is inching towards the 1000-mark and is now 964. Also, the number of active cases currently in the State crossed the 10,000 mark.
According to the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) daily bulletin, with 994 added the total active cases as on Thursday evening stood at 10,228 and the Margao health centre jurisdiction alone accounted for 1,134. Porvorim followed next with 887 active cases.
Worrisome, meanwhile, was the positivity rate (the ratio of cases for every 100 tests) which has now shot up to 36 per-cent -- 1,410 tested positive from the 3,906 samples that were tested.
Meanwhile, the scenario in the Covid-19 wards at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) is getting precarious by the hour with both infrastructure and manpower functioning way beyond capacity.
Beds are packed and patients are accommodated on stretchers, on the floors and some on chairs. Oxygen points are being juggled between patients and clearly doctors, nurses and paramedics are getting overwhelmed.
Senior health officials and the administrative setup at the GMC&H are not responding to calls but some of the senior doctors, who spoke on condition of anonymity admitted to the chaos with regard to the erratic flow of medical supplies to the wards, including oxygen which is crucial and can potentially be the tipping point for a patient's survival.
The DHS' mortality report, meanwhile, indicates that four of the dead Covid patients were below 50 years of age and three were declared 'brought dead' to hospitals.
A 41-year-old man from Guirim was the youngest of the 21 who succumbed to the dreaded virus on Wednesday-Thursday. The other three sub 50-year-olds include 46-year-old man and woman from Aquem and Ponda respectively and a 48-year-old man from Nerul.
Also included in the 21 dead on Wednesday-Thursday was an unidentified man.
Meanwhile, around 89 per cent active Covid patients are under home isolation, 956 patients are admitted in various hospitals across Goa and 165 are housed at the three Covid care centers.
Warning that the second wave of Covid has more infectivity and severity GMC dean Dr Bandekar urged people not to take the pandemic lightly.
Urging people to refrain for falling prey to fake messages and wrong propaganda via social media, Dr Bandekar asserted that vaccination will help people achieve good resistance to the virus and severity will be less even if those vaccinated happen to get infected with the virus.
