PANJIM: Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Friday ruled out imposing of night curfew in the State from Monday, December 27 on the backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases and emergence of Omicron variant scare.
After chairing the Goa COVID Task Force meeting, CM Sawant said that additional restrictions have not been imposed as of now as it is festive as well as tourist season in the State. But everyone needs to take precautions, he said.
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Informing that rise in COVID-19 positivity rate from 1.8 per cent to 3.5 per cent is a serious concern, Sawant appealed to the people to be on guard and strictly follow all COVID-19 protocols such as to wear face marks and maintain social-distancing norms.
“There is no decision as regards night curfew as of now. But I am making
people alert. If they follow COVID appropriate behaviour and help curb the spread of Coronavirus, we won’t have to impose night curfew,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that the enforcement agencies will be more active from Monday to ensure that citizens as well as tourists strictly follow COVID-19 protocols. Advisory for general public and for all tourism stakeholders will be issued on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Expert Committee comprising medical professionals as well as the Task Force consisting of government officials will meet on Monday to decide the next course of action for the State in the backdrop of Omicron variant scare.
According to Sawant, the Directorate of Health Services, Department of Tourism, District Collectorate offices and others will issue various advisories after Monday to curb the spread of COVID-19 and keep a check on Omicron threat.
The Chief Minister said that the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Bambolim will be equipped with Genome Sequencing machine within a month. He said that a decision in this regard was taken during the Task Force meeting and that the order would be placed by Tuesday.
Cm also said that there has been a steady arrival of foreigners into Goa. Currently 3500 foreign tourists have arrived and it was becoming difficult to keep contact with them as often mobile numbers of most of them were not reachable. He said that it is mandatory for tourists to undergo RT-PCR test after eight days of their arrival.
Sawant said that the National Institute of Virology (NIV) laboratory, Pune was taking minimum 20 to 25 days to send the reports. Of the 28 suspected samples of foreigners sent to Pune, reports of eight samples were found to be Delta positive and 19 reports are still pending.
“Therefore, the Goa government has decided to purchase and establish a genome sequencing machine in the GMC, Bambolim,” he said.
