PANAJI
The expert committee on Covid-19 was convened for high level deliberations on Saturday in view of yet another spike in new Covid cases in the state.
The committee reviewed and revised its previous recommendations in acknowledgement of the observation that the weekly average positivity rate might not be the true indicator to guide the government. While Goa’s Covid cases are on the rise, hospital admissions as well as the death rate are extremely low. Considering these factors, the expert committee has now based its guidelines on hospital bed occupancy rate.
A member of the expert committee told The Goan that the third wave is expected to peak in Goa within 10 to 15 days. “During this peak, the number of cases might be three times of what was in the last wave. But what has been found is that most of the patients are mild and hospital admissions are very few. Very few are in the ICU and the death rate is also very down,” the source stated.
It was learnt that on an average, one death has occurred every other day among the patients admitted in the last 10 to 15 days and the deceased were found to be with multiple comorbidities.
The expert committee observed that Goa has about 19 confirmed positive cases of Omicron so far and while Omicron is probably not the dominant strain in Goa yet, it will soon be. In consideration of this, it was recommended that the comorbid and aged people have to be protected.
The committee also noted that around 82 per cent of the infected persons this time are between 15 to 60 years of age, those who move outside. Around 10 per cent are aged above 60 years while children below 15 years of age were only about eight per cent.
Restrictions
The expert committee has recommended that the present restrictions may continue till the bed occupancy at superspecialty block in Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim remains between 10 to 40 per cent.
The committee has further suggested that if the bed occupancy at the super specialty bloc crosses 40 per cent, then all tourism activities as well as malls and theatres need to be shut down and the public transport can be reduced to 50 per cent seating capacity.
If the superspecialty block gets full, the district hospitals will be activated to admit Covid patients. However, if the bed occupancy rate at these hospitals goes above 50 per cent, a total lockdown may be imposed.
Presently, only 60 patients are admitted at the superspecialty bloc which has 580 oxygenated beds, which comes to less than one per cent bed capacity.
