Tourism stake holders were panicky till the last moment due to the conflict between the Health Minister and Vishwajeet Rane and the chief minister Pramod Sawant, Acting on direction issued by the Union Health Minister, Rane moved a file for imposing a curfew from 9pm to 6am as in the case of Karnataka and Maharashtra. Maharashtra however allowed pubs and restaurants to be open to 11 pm.

The Chief Minister Pramod Sawant over ruled Pratap Singh Rane and decided against imposing any night curfew in Goa. This resulted the flood of tourist ignoring all the covid-19 norms and flooding the beaches and the night clubs without masks or maintaining physical distance.

If there is a major spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in the next few days the chief minister Pramod Sawant will be entirely responsible. The risk is greater because the new variant of covid-19 which strikes swiftly and targets the young is already in Goa. Brought in by the lakhs of tourist who came to Goa from Pune, Delhi, and other cities where over 50 patients from the UK carrying the Mutant strain have been isolated.

The rush of tourist many have tested positive for covid-19 on New Year eve led to an acute shortage of beds in the GMC. The niz Goenkar Lourenco Mendonca was rush to the GMC with respiratory problem which is the symptom of Covid-19. Initially he was isolated and tested for Covid-19. The test was negative and apparently he had pneumonia.

But since the GMC is full of covid-19 patients and all the wards are filled with them he could not get a bed the entire night. The patient was kept on stretcher in the corridor of ward 101. He was still there in New Years morning having spent the entire night in the corridor. This despite a personal appeal by me to the Dean Dr Siddharth Bandekar who promised to take necessary action to find a bed for the patient. Regrettably close friends in the GMC treating Covid-19 patients were more concerned about celebrating New Year then checking the patient.