Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: As lakhs of tourist usher Goa for year-end celebration, the Expert Committee on COVID-19 management has recommended imposing night curfew in the coastal State.
The Committee in their recommendations to the Task Force also said that State can go for complete lockdown if the positivity rate reaches 15 per cent and above.
Today, State reported 67 new COVID-19 cases at a positivity rate of 3.9 per cent.
The Expert Committee held its meeting today wherein, sources said that it has decided to recommend to the Task Force that government should “seriously” consider imposing night curfew in the State, as soon as possible.
Sources also said that with tourism season in force, it is important that hotels make RTPCR test mandatory for their guests.
The expert committee took detail overview of the situation and opined that if active cases cross 1000 mark, with average weekly positivity rate above 3.5 percent then schools will need to be shut.
The Committee also recommended that hotel businesses, restaurant and indoor gathering should be restricted at 50 percent capacity.
The Committee also recommends complete shut down of tourism activities, If average positivity rate goes above 7.5 percent and active cases rise to 3000.
Currently, State has 465 active covid patients with average weekly positivity rate at 2.4 percent.
The Union Home Ministry on Monday extended the Covid-19 guidelines till January 31, 2022 and directed all the states and union territories to strictly comply.
In a letter to all Chief Secretaries of the states and UTs, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla said that the country has witnessed an overall decline in active Covid-19 cases, however, the new variant Omicron, which is reported to be at least three times more transmissible than the Delta virus, is posing a new challenge for the Covid containment measures.
In the countries with Omicron driven surge, the growth trajectory of cases has been very steep and also a total of 578 Omicron cases have already been reported in 19 states/UTs, he added.