Home isolation: Where do single-room families go?

CLOSURE OF SALCETE COVID CARE CENTRES

THE GOAN NETWORK | SEPTEMBER 16, 2020, 07:23 PM IST

COLVA RESIDENCY FOR
COVID WARRIORS?
Inquiries by 'The Goan' have revealed that the district administration has proposed that the Colva Residency be reserved for doctors and para-medics who will be deployed at the Covid hospital in the South district hospital

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PEOPLE'S PLIGHT 
The closure of Covid care centres has left citizens, especially those living in single-room houses, with no option than to stay at home, posing Covid risks to other inmates, or travel all the way to Ponda to get themselves admitted

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MOOT QUESTION
Why is the government still not keen on opening the top two floors of the South Goa district hospital as Covid care centres?

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MARGAO: Salcete has no dedicated Covid care centre for asymptomatic patients, with the authorities shutting them down at Colva Residency and at the Multipurpose Indoor stadium, Fatorda – throwing up a moot question whether home isolation for Covid asymptomatic patients is now the norm.

The shutting down of the Covid care centres at the Colva Resdiency and the multipurpose indoor stadium, Fatorda may leave the asymptomatic Covid patients with no option than to go for home isolation or to travel all the way to Ponda taluka and get admitted to Covid care centres at Farmagudi and Shiroda.

The development has only raised a question: How people staying in single-room rented houses will cope up with home isolation.

Besides Colva Residency and the Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Fatorda, the Margao Residency was also notified as a Covid care centre. However, the facility is mostly available for health care workers, including doctors and nurses, hit by Coronavirus, and the common man may get the slot at the Margao Residency only if a room is vacant.

Health and district administration officials informed that the authorities might have shut down the Covid care centres in Salcete with people opting for home isolation instead of getting themselves admitted to hospitals. 

Sources, however, pointed out that the closure of the Covid care centres has left citizens, especially those living in single-room houses, with no option than to stay at home, posing Covid risks to other inmates, or travel all the way to Ponda to get admitted in a Covid care centre. A health official pointed out that the administration must have shut down the Covid care centres with community and family transmission underway and people preferring home isolation.

Inquiries by The Goan, however, revealed that the district administration has proposed that the Colva Residency be reserved for doctors and para-medics who will be deployed at the Covid hospital in the South district hospital. Similarly, the administration has moved a proposal to house Multi-Task Service workers, to be deployed in the South district Covid hospital,  in the Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Fatorda.

It isn’t clear yet whether the Covid care centres in Salcete have been shut down to create space in order to accommodate the doctors and paramedics, who will be drafted for work at the district Covid hospital.

This will bring to the fore the moot question why the government is still not keen in opening the top two floors of the South Goa district hospital as care centres. As already reported, these two floors had the original capacity to accommodate around 300 beds. However, with these two floors undergoing changes to the Civil works in line with the government’s decision to house a nursing institute, Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) officials in private say these floors can easily accommodate around 150-200 beds if the government agrees to notified the top two floors as a COVID care centre.


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