The Domestic tourists flooded in Goa following the reopening of Goa Borders, are going around the places without wearing the Masks or maintaining any social distancing norms for that matter, and this has led to generate a major concern amongst the local Goans who feels worried about someone carrying virus may spread across the state once again.
Although the Tourism season has not taken the usual momentum the year due to lack of foreign tourists but the domestic tourists have already starred flooding the state. The Tourists upon reaching Goa feels very carefree thinking “Goa Me Sab Kuch Chalta Hai” (everything is acceptable in Goa) but that is not the truth.
The most popular Calangute beach situated in the North Goa is facing major challenge from these tourists as the flow of tourists is growing gradually the stakeholders fear that this could lead to the second wave of the Virus in the state.
According to the reports, most of the visitors have been spotted moving around without waring the masks. There is image went viral on the social media wherein groups of domestic tourists have been spotted moving around without wearing the Masks or following any social distancing noms.
“Tourists are roaming around without any masks as there are no police personnel on the beach to monitor them,” Calangute panch Saluzinho Fernandes, who is the Baga ward member, told TOI.
According to the new SOPs the tourists entering into the state are not being tested at the Goa border or on the airport which is crating a dangerous situation for the people of Goa stated a local person from Calangute.
“All the locals are wearing masks and taking precautions, but there is nobody to tell the tourists to keep the masks on,” Fernandes said.
Goa has been witnessing a major drop in Covid cases which is a good news for the people of Goa but there won’t be much time as the cases might get on rise once again if the social distancing and wearing of masks not followed by the guests moving around in Goa.
“Tourist police should be posted on the beach and they should fine tourists moving around without masks,” said the Shack Owners’ Welfare Society General Secretary John Lobo. “The police come and tell shack owners and water sports operators and their staff to wear masks, but nothing is being done about tourists not wearing masks. This will surely lead to a major spread of the virus, as it happened in Delhi and elsewhere,” He added.
It may be recalled that the Minister for Ports and Calangute MLA Michael Lobo had recently stated that he would be asking the chief minister to redeploy Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) police on the beach, as was done earlier, but that has still not happened, stakeholders said.
Dr Roshan Nazareth, health officer at the Candolim primary health centre, which has been reporting a significant number of cases, said a majority of the positive cases are of non-Goans. Out of the 11 positive cases on Tuesday, nine are non-Goans.
“There have been some tourists staying in hotels who tested positive after they developed symptoms. Most of the positive cases have non-Goan names, but we don’t keep a separate list of tourists. They also include staff of guesthouses and other tourism-related places,” he said.
According to Dr Nazareth the tourists who tested positive were allowed to stay in their hotel rooms for the quarantine period, with the hotels taking adequate precautions.
The major concern here is who is keeping vigil on them in case they stated moving around on the beach without wearing masks? What are your views on this story?
