Cause of worry in Canacona as 77 fresh cases of COVID-19

NT NETWORK

Canacona

Worrying reports of new COVID cases every day, lack of proper health infrastructure, casual approach of public towards the virus, no proper health awareness among home isolated COVID patients and their family members and most importantly the 45 km distance from Canacona to Margao for better healthcare are concerns of the residents considering the worrying situation of the virus in the taluka.

77 fresh cases of COVID were reported on Thursday, while 104 cases were detected on Wednesday, causing panic amongst the people in the taluka.

With COVID cases on the workload of the CHC daily, the situation is going on increasing and has come to a worrying state of affairs said sources from the health centre.

Inspite of all the precautions and awareness drives taken up in the taluka earlier by the health officials, somehow the virus kept showing its presence in the taluka which is situated away from the densely populated places recently even registering a micro containment area in Palolem.

A most recent video of a COVID positive person walking in a pharmacy despite knowing his status showed the irresponsible approach of the patient and many with the same behaviour can speed up the number of cases in the taluka many argued on social media.

A family member who is taking care of two elderly members who are affected on anonymity said that she is unaware about how to dispose the waste of his family members. Since they are old, their clothes, used utensils and other things used by them have to be cleaned and they don’t really know how to handle the situation.

Members of home isolation patients have to be advised by the authorities effectively so that they don’t spread the virus through our ignorance she said.

With lots of factors affecting the spread of the virus, questions have been now raised by the public on the efficiency of the taluka disaster management committee, health officials, police department, civic body and others if Canacona is equipped to handle the second wave effectively.

Canacona Community Health Centre is the lone government hospital in the taluka and caters to more than fifty thousand people from the municipal as well as rural areas.

Besides three specialist doctors who visit the centre on specific days, CHC has 8 medical officers who would attend to around 300 patients every day.

Diogo D’Silva president of the Canacona Health Welfare Committee said that the CHC is already on additional strain due to rising cases every day, apart from COVID vaccination and treating in-house patients and with other ailments.

Looking at the worrying signals the local authorities now have to act to create more stringent enforcement in public and create better awareness by printing COVID related information care for patients under home isolation as well as their family members he said. Public now is relying more on social media for their home treatments which is more easily available at their fingertips and this could be fatal in some cases he opined.

We have already lost 18 persons from Canacona and all have to collectively make efforts to stop the COVID death graph from climbing as well as the COVID number said D’Silva.

Local authorities, elected representatives and others have now to get together to identify effective approach and implement recommended approaches for prevention and future emergencies said Anil Bhagat who is the vice president of Canacona Business Association seeing the worrying signs in Canacona.

People now have to take self responsibility and not rely entirely on the government to decrease the gravity of the situation in the state.

Canacona Citizen Samiti (CCS) and other likeminded citizens on Wednesday have decided after a meeting to appeal to the Municipal Council, businessmen of Canacona and other vendors to extend the current lockdown in the state voluntarily, considering the worrying number of cases mainly in the municipal area.

Shantaji Naikgaunkar, convenor of CCS said that the voluntary lockdown should at least be extended to a week to lower the COVID graph in the taluka.

Meanwhile Canacona reported 77 new cases on Thursday taking the total cases to 1359 cases.

With 19 deaths and 937 recoveries so far Canacona still has 372 active cases out of which 10 are admitted to the South Goa District Hospital informed Dr Jose Tavares, health officer at CHC. 

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