PANJIM: Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant ruled out any decision on imposing a janata curfew or restrictions on inter-state travel at this point of time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sawant made the announcement while interacting with the media after the completion of the virtual conference between the State government and the Centre.
He explained that along with Health Minister Vishwajit Rane and other government officials, they attended the conference chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was also attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. A review on how to increase testing of suspected COVID patients and vaccination programmes was held along with analysis of why COVID cases had risen dramatically in five other States (not Goa).
“Depending on the situation in each State regarding the rise in COVID-19 cases, the State governments have been told that they can take a decision on precautionary measures that can be taken like setting up mini-containment zones or enforcing night curfew. However, we are not going ahead with the curfew as of now but are increasing COVID testing and monitoring as well as the vaccination programmes,” Sawant said.
Responding to queries from the media, he said that the government has not decided on imposing restrictions on inter-state travel but has asked hotels that have tourists to step up their surveillance efforts such as using thermal gun scanners at the entrance and sending any tourist with symptoms to the nearby health centres.
He appealed to locals and tourists to follow COVID safety guidelines such as wearing masks, using sanitisers and maintaining social distancing and added that directions have been issued to the administration and police to tighten the checks on people not wearing masks by issuing fines to the violators.
Sawant also made a note of the daily COVID cases and deaths in the State and acknowledged that the risk factor has increased and said this is why they are going to scale up the monitoring efforts.
He also advised the public to get themselves tested if they feel any symptoms and to admit themselves in hospitals before it is too late if they feel sick. He urged senior citizens and people above 45 to get their vaccination doses quickly.
