Speculation is rife these days over a third Covid-19 wave, which is expected to hit the country in July-September. It is predicted that this wave, likely to be intense, will affect children. While we are still in the midst of the second wave, battling hard to breathe and stay alive, it is yet to be ascertained whether the warning bells sounded by eminent epidemiologists and medical experts are more of a cautionary signal or an impending disaster waiting to unleash itself once again. We in Goa are still paying a heavy price for the government’s cavalier and lackadaisical attitude in tackling the second wave when there were enough straws in the wind to indicate the galloping rise in the number of daily Covid positive cases in the state. Hundreds of lives could have been saved, had the Goa government prepared a contingency plan with adequate infrastructure for hospitalisation and a properly-managed healthcare system for the treatment of Covid patients with life-saving medicines and equipment. Sadly, all this was missing, as patients continued to die. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes again and play with the lives of people. It is, therefore, necessary for government to draw up a plan of action to tackle the third wave and remain ready before we are caught napping once again.
