Goa providing free Covid treatment to all those being treated at government hospitals.
Goa is treating Covid patients for free in all government hospitals, informed chief minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday. The government is also taking care of up to 80 per cent expense of those being treated for Covid in private hospitals.
"We're giving free of cost treatment to everyone in Goa in all government hospitals. Besides this, people who get COVID treatment in the private hospitals, 80% of their fees is being paid by the government, they need to pay only 20% of the fee," Goa CM Pramod Sawant said.
Earlier in the day, a decision on imposing a lockdown in the state may be taken by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant late on Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar said.
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Addressing reporters after meeting Sawant, along with other ruling MLAs, who joined via video conference, Kavlekar said that cases in Goa were not decreasing despite the current restrictions imposed by the state government.
"A decision (on lockdown) will be taken today," he said.
The ruling BJP legislators have gone into huddle after the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Goa government to impose restrictions on visitors arriving in Goa from May 10.
It also sought detailed information about the government's Covid management mechanism, while hearing a bunch of public interest litigations, which among other prayers, have sought a 15-day lockdown in Goa, which on Thursday witnessed a record 3,869 new positive cases and 58 deaths.
Kavlekar said that imposing a lockdown may have to be the next step before the government, because restrictions imposed by the government to curtail public movement had not managed to arrest the rising number of infections.
"We discussed about the lockdown (at the meeting). I have said that the manner in which cases have increased, we may have to go for another lockdown. CM has sought everyone's opinion and all MLAs were in agreement for a lockdown," he said.
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