PANJIM: After facing criticism from Goans, the State government has decided to do away with the home quarantine option for incoming travellers while making the COVID-19 negative certificate mandatory.
Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant informed the media after the meeting of the Council of Ministers, that on May 24 the State Executive Committee had decide to give three options to passengers arriving in Goa.
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“Out of the three one was to produce COVID negative certificate, second was to get TrueNAT testing done by paying Rs 2,000 or third was give a declaration of 14-day home quarantine,” Sawant said.
The third option of home quarantine, he said, was given since Goa had a limited testing facility of around 1,000 tests per day. “We were told around 4,000 would arrive on May 25, and handling that was beyond the State’s capacity. Hence the third option was given,” he said.
Further, the chief minister said, “Now that the number is quite less (due to flight cancellations) and not even 1,000 per day we have decided to remove the third option in the SOP. So now either the passengers have to show COVID-19 negative certificate or get the testing done by paying Rs 2,000,” he said.
As per the new protocol, the CM said that passengers will be tested at the airport or railway station and sent home and asked to self quarantine till his/her report is out.
The Chief Minister reiterated that the situation in Goa is under control and there is no need to panic. “All cases are imported and I am confident that in next 2-3 days many positive patients will recover,” he said.
Asked whether the State will have a separate SOP for the people arriving from Maharashtra, he said, there is no need for this after the changes. “As per the demands of the situation, the SOPs will keep on changing, for example regular trains will begin from June 1, we will have to think on that also, but as of now no need of separate SOP for Maharashtra,” he replied.
On the changes in SOPs for foreign arrivals, Sawant said that the State is not charging individual seafarers, it is the companies who had expressed a desire to pay.
He added, now that the quarantine period is just seven days, the government has asked the hotels to refund the amount paid for 14 days quarantine to companies.
