Goa Rethinks Opening Up For Tourists As It Still Hasn't Vaccinated Its Entire Population
The Goa government had set itself a target of vaccinating every eligible person with one dose by July 31 which the chief minister, Pramod Sawant said would decide whether the state could reopen for tourism.
In June, the Goa Government had set itself a target to fully vaccinate the people of the state, by July 31, with an aim to open up for tourists.
But with around one lakh people in the state, still unvaccinated against COVID-19 the government's plans to resume tourism have hit a roadblock.
BCCL
The State Expert Committee that was constituted by the state government to offer advice on containing the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to take a final decision but has recommended several options to the government including mandating that only fully vaccinated people be allowed to enter the state without a negative test.
COVID still on
¡°At present I can say only one thing, Covid-19 is still on. Even today the positivity rate in Goa is 1.9 to two per cent. There are one to two deaths. We need to take precautions,¡± Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said.
"We have to take precautions for the upcoming festivals too. We will be issuing an SOP as a state government, after taking inputs from Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav organisers. We should celebrate festivals in such a way that large crowds do not gather," he also said.
BCCL
Experts are also not in favour of allowing tourists immediately in Goa.
¡°All the members agreed that tourism can¡¯t be allowed when we don¡¯t know when the third wave will hit us, though we expect its impact to be less severe,¡± an expert committee member told The Times of India.
Bad news for tourism
This is not good news for the state's tourism industry which had hoped that an August resumption could bring in good business.
Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, president Nilesh Shah had earlier this week aid that August, may witness a surge in tourists making a bee-line for Goa, due to a large number of holidays in the month.
BCCL
"Goa is very safe and the key word here is sustainable tourism. We are already open and it will gradually grow. In this coming month of August, a lot of holidays in different states are coming up. Things will start improving," he had said.
Shah also said that the industry is opening up in the state in a "very calibrated manner", even though bookings were low at the moment.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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