Negative Covid-19 report or double vaccination certificate necessary to attend parties in Goa

|HT|

Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that a person has to show either a negative Covid-19 report or a double vaccination certificate for attending parties or entering restaurants in the coastal state.

A detailed order to this effect will be released by the state government on Wednesday evening, Sawant told reporters.

Even as many states have brought back night curfews amid the Omicron alarm, the state government has decided against it for now so that the tourism business amid the Christmas-New Year festival season is not affected.

Sawant has assured that his government is monitoring the Covid-19 situation in the state and would take precautionary measures during the meeting of the task force scheduled to be held on January 3 if need arises.

Ahead of the New Year celebration, there is currently about 90 per cent occupancy in hotels in the state, while beaches are already overcrowded with revellers, tourism industry stakeholder said.

Speaking to reporters, Travel and Tourism association of Goa (TTAG) president Nilesh Shah said “There have been five to seven per cent cancellations in hotel bookings, but the season is overall good".

“The end of the year has always been a good season for the tourism industry. The hotel occupancy is around 90 per cent during these days, which will increase by the New Year,” Shah said.

“It is a good sign that we are getting back to normalcy,” Shah said, adding that the tourism industry has learnt to do business with Covid-19 protocols in place.

On Tuesday, Goa reported a sudden spike in coronavirus cases with 112 people testing positive for the infection, the state health department said. On Monday the coastal state had recorded 67 cases.

The caseload on Tuesday rose to 1,80,229, while the death toll reached 3,520 with one patient dying due to the infection, as per official data.

The state has reported one case of the Omicron variant so far.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)