Have sufficient oxygen to meet current needs: Goa Health secretary

PANAJI: Health secretary Ravi Dhawan on Sunday said that there is no shortage of oxygen in the state. “Oxygen is sufficient to meet our current demand. Initially, Goa was allocated 11 tonne per day by the government of India, which was enhanced to 21 tonne and then to 26 tonne per day. Then we have capacity within the state among three suppliers,” he told reporters.
Dhawan said patients in Covid care centres don’t require oxygen as their vitals are stable and added that facilities like the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium have a dedicated ambulance to shift patients whose condition shows signs of deteriorating.Ninety-nine oxygen concentrators will be installed on Sunday at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium, the health secretary said.
Goa medical college dean and head of Covid hospitals in the state, Dr S M Bandekar appealed to people to seek medical treatment early, especially those with comorbidities, saying little could be done if patients present very late. He said those with the slightest fever must be considered Covid until proven otherwise. “Any fever during the pandemic has to be a Covid fever,” Bandekar said, adding that one must test for Covid and seek medical attention immediately.
“Once a person reaches into the oxygen dependent stage you require a lot of things and then nobody knows whether you will come out of it and then there’s no point blaming the system. Once there’s massive lung damage, repair work is very very slow and doubtful,” the GMC dean said.
Director of health services Dr Jose D’Sa said that after meetings with expert physicians, intensivists and consultants, the government has taken a decision to give everybody who is tested medication. “Every patient who comes for testing is given five tablets of Ivermectin and 10 of doxycyline and paracetamol once they give their swab sample,” he said, adding that pulse oximeters are given once the patient tests positive.
Dhawan said no orders have been given to the government testing facilities about not testing people wanting to travel out of Goa. However, he said that the government is giving priority to those who are symptomatic. When asked about the big variation in testing privately in Goa and other states and whether the government would lower the cost of testing in private labs, Dhawan said, “Most facilities are charging not more than Rs 1,000 for RT-PCR and RAT has been capped at Rs 580. So far, we have not received any demand, but we are open to looking into this aspect,” the health secretary said.
When questioned about fully vaccinated people being allowed entry into Goa and whether they couldn’t carry Covid into Goa, Dhawan said he is waiting for final orders from the government.
Bandekar said there are “remote chances” of those who have received both doses of the vaccine to be carriers in Goa. “The notification is still not out. Why we want it is because that way at least we will know who is frankly positive and can isolate them. Carriers cannot be identified,” he said, adding that two vaccine doses increases one’s immunity to such an extent that people “won’t be having that virus in you”.