At least 75 patients died at the Goa Medical College and Hospital, the state’s biggest Covid facility, in the past four days, because of “logistic issues” in the supply of medical oxygen.
Thirteen people died on Friday, according to former Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai, and 15 deaths were recorded on Thursday. Wednesday saw 21 people dead and 26 people lost their lives on Tuesday. All 75 deaths took place in the “dark hours”, reportedly between 1 am and 6 am.
The Opposition has reacted strongly, with the Goa Forward Party on Friday filing a police complaint against Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and senior government officers. The complaint alleges gross and reckless acts of negligence and deliberate omission of duty, referring to the interruption of oxygen supply that led to the deaths of the Covid patients.
Goa Congress is set to file a criminal case against CM Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane claiming “cold-blooded murder”. The party has slammed the “…clear-cut admission by Goa’s BJP government before the High Court of Bombay at Goa that 41 deaths occurred due to shortage of oxygen.” As per the official press statement, Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar said that the candid admission by Goa’s BJP government before the High Court of Bombay at Goa that there is a substantial deficit of oxygen supply shows that it is irresponsible and insensitive.
“If the health minister admits on camera that he was aware that patients were dying between 2-6 AM on a daily basis and that the death toll in Goa would be around 200-300 per day, why did he not act upon it and ensure that such a calamity is averted. What action had the CM and HM specifically taken to stop Covid deaths regularly between 2 am and 6 am?” Chodankar questioned.
On Thursday, the Goa bench of the High Court was told by Advocate General Devidas Pangam that “logistical issues involved in maneuvering tractors which carry oxygen, and (the) connecting of cylinders to manifold” were to blame. The Goa government informed the HC that during the process of attaching the oxygen manifold there was some interruption, which resulted in the fall of pressure in the supply lines of oxygen to patients.
However, the bench, hearing petitions on the handling of the pandemic, slammed the state, saying Covid patients could not be allowed to die because of “logistics”. It directed hospital and state authorities to file a status report by 7 pm on Friday and to include reports on the supply of oxygen and the availability of tanks, concentrators and drivers.
Chodankar also said that as of 13 May, there had been a total of 1937 Covid-related deaths, out of which only 41 were officially accepted by the government before the court as deaths due to oxygen shortage. He added that the Goa Congress hopes that the HC will order an impartial inquiry by a retired High Court Judge to ascertain the truth.
The Governor of Goa and Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Friday reviewed the Covid situation in Goa during his meeting with Pramod Sawant and Vishwajeet Rane in an online meeting. The Governor enquired about vaccination planning, oxygen supply, awareness, testing, involvement of university students and volunteers and other relevant issues.
However, Chodankar slammed the “part-time” Governor and opined that if Goa had a full-time Governor in the form of Satyapal Malik, it could have helped save hundreds of lives of innocents.
He also pointed at the irony that the Union Home Minister Amit Shah had the time to settle a commission dispute between Goa BJP’s two “political brats” and not to focus on preventing the scores of deaths for the mass murders at Goa’s hospitals on the BJP’s watch.
Goa reported 2,865 new coronavirus cases and 70 deaths, taking the state’s caseload to 1,27,639 and the death toll to 1,874. The number of recovered patients rose to 92,974 with 2,840 persons getting discharged from hospitals. The number of active cases stood at 32,791.