The order for mandatory quarantine for visitors from Kerala shall, however, not be applicable to constitutional functionaries, healthcare professionals and their spouses, children below two years, those in a dire emergency like a death in the family and those passing through the state .
The Goa government has extended the state-level Covid-19 “curfew” by another week up to September 20 and mandated five day quarantine for persons travelling to the state from Kerala.
In an order issued by the two district magistrates under Section 144 of the CrPC, “all students and employees coming from Kerala should be subjected to institutional quarantine of five days.”
Other visitors from Kerala will have to mandatorily produce a negative RT-PCR test certificate and undergo home quarantine for five days, as per the order.
“The arrangement for quarantine of students will be done by the administrators/principals of the educational institutions. For the employees, it shall be done by the respective offices/ companies/firms,” the order reads.
“At the end of five days, they shall be tested by RT-PCR,” the order states.
The order shall, however, not be applicable to constitutional functionaries, healthcare professionals and their spouses, children below two years, those in a dire emergency like a death in the family and those passing through the state via train or road.
Prior to this order, all persons entering the state were required to produce a Covid negative certificate except those who had received their 2nd dose of Covid vaccine at least 14 days ago.
As per the order, casinos, auditoriums, community halls, river cruises, water parks, entertainment parks and water sports continue to remain closed.
The “curfew” has been in place in Goa since the first week of May as cases and deaths began to mount, but has gradually been relaxed with each passing week until now, when the restrictions on persons arriving from Kerala have been imposed.
Late last week Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant said the state had administered 100% of its eligible population with the first dose of Covid vaccine and would achieve full vaccination by October 31.The state is now recording around 100 cases per day with a positivity rate between 1-2% each day.