MAPUSA
Maintaining that the “Covid storm” in the State was not over and the government should not lower its guard, the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday said the government must take over private hospitals and hotels to tide over the shortage of beds.
The party has also urged the government to link the Covid treatment to the DDSSY insurance scheme to provide relief to people of Goa.
“The government is entitled to take over hotels and private hospitals under the Disaster Management Act. Different states have used this approach to plan for infrastructural needs to deal with the Covid crisis,” said Rahul Mhambre, interim convenor of AAP.
“The Goa Medical College is full again, and the number of active cases is rising. What is stopping the government from taking over hotels and private hospitals and converting them into Covid facilities,” asked Mhambre, while addressing the media in Mapusa.
At least three state governments -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh -- have issued orders to temporarily take over entire private hospitals to treat Covid patients. The patients will be treated free by the government in these hospitals.
After conducting an analysis of Covid infections in the State for a period of eight weeks, AAP has found that the average number of testing per day has remained static while the average number of Covid positive cases per day has increased 2.5 times, which indicated that the positivity rate was increasing rapidly.
“Within a span of eight weeks, the active cases has risen more than three times from 1,652 to 5,408. The number of Covid deaths reported in the last week (ending September 19) is almost four times to what was in the last week of July. From 15 deaths in the last week of July, the number of deaths rose to 56 in the previous week of September (ending on September 19),” indicated an analysis done by AAP.
The analysis was conducted for a period of eight weeks from July 26 to September 19.
“This is why we have been demanding to increase the number of testing to 5,000 per day, to trace and isolate patients timely and stop the spread,” Mhambre said.
AAP has also slammed the State government, particularly the health minister, for making false promises.
“If AAP and common Goans have reached almost 40,000 houses in a fortnight under the ‘Goans against Corona’ campaign and performed oxygen level checkups, why has the health minister not been able to deliver promised home isolation oximeter kits?” Mhambre questioned.
He also said the marginal reduction of the capping rate by the government was only a gimmick.
