No voluntary quarantine option for people arriving in Goa: CM Pramod Sawant

Panaji: The Goa government on Wednesday tweaked its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for people entering the state through rail, road and air routes by doing away with the option of voluntary home quarantine for 14 days.

The previous conditions like either carrying a coronavirus negative certificate or getting tested after arrival in Goa, however, remained unchanged.

"People entering Goa through rail, road and air will have to carry a COVID-19 certificate or get themselves tested after their arrival for the infection.

"The option of the voluntary home quarantine for a period of 14 days has been done away with from Wednesday onwards," Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told reporters after chairing a Cabinet meeting.

Opposition parties in Goa had objected to the voluntary home quarantine option citing monitoring issues.

The CM said the option of voluntary home quarantine was given for the new arrivals given that the sample testing capacity of the state stands at about 1,000 samples in 24 hours.

"But we realised that many flights are getting cancelled and about 1,000 people are arriving in the state (daily)," he said.

As on Tuesday, Goa's COVID-19 case count stands at 67 while the number of active cases was 39.

Sawant said Goa is still a green zone as the viral infection is being controlled at the state border itself.

"We have controlled the infection at the border.

The people who have tested positive for the infection were checked at the border itself," the CM said.

Sawant had on Tuesday said that 90 per cent of new cases in Goa are the people who have arrived from Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, he refuted allegations that Goans working on ships were "discriminated against" by the government, as returnees from ships have to stay in a seven-day quarantine at their own cost.

"The Union Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines make it mandatory for the people who have arrived from abroad to undergo the paid quarantine," he said.