PANAJI
Director of Health Dr Ira Almeida on Tuesday announced that the third wave of Covid pandemic has hit Goa.
“DHS has designated the start of the third wave as December 28 considering the sustained rise in the previous week and the doubling of cases 24 hours prior to December 28,” the Director of Health stated.
Dr Almeida explained that the daily positivity rate was as high as 26.23 per cent on Monday because only those who were symptomatic went for testing. “Today’s is a more realistic picture with 4,261 samples tested and 592 positive cases posting a 13.89 per cent positivity rate. We are trying to sustain high level of testing and contact tracing,” she said.
One of the five cases of omicron variant confirmed in Goa was believed to have no travel history giving rise to concerns about indigenous spread of the variant in Goa. Referring to this concern, Dr Ira informed that the patient had travel history of going to Kolhapur on December 16. He tested positive on December 19. “We are on the watch for any indigenous spread. We need to look closely before we declare that community transmission is underway,” the health director stated.
DHS has pointed out that most of the omicron cases have taken both doses of the vaccine and that the ones who are sick and are dying are the unvaccinated or have comorbid conditions, which in most cases is uncontrolled diabetes. However, Dr Ira sought to point out that there is no cause for panic. “The big difference in this third wave is that this time, 95 per cent of Goa’s population above 18 years of age is fully vaccinated with only less than a lakh people left to be vaccinated fully. We know that omicron is mild but the sheer infectivity rate might give us numbers much higher and for that, we are ready. The good news is that a positive case only needs a paracetamol now to recover.”
DHS has advised Covid appropriate behaviour and has requested people not to attend large gatherings in closed spaces as many clusters have been noticed among wedding guests.
Dr Ira, who is a member of both the expert committee and the state-level task force committee, said that restrictions will be tightened immediately if ICU beds start filling quickly and severity of the cases rises.
