Goa revises COVID-19 guidelines for tourists, mandates negative RT-PCR report; know details

People planning to visit Goa in the upcoming festive season are required to furnish proof that they are safe from COVID-19 before they are allowed to enter the state.

Goa Chief Miniter Pramod Sawant announced on Friday, August 6, that visitors to the state will be required to show negative RT-PCR test results or vaccination certificates for both COVID-19 vaccine doses.

"The positivity rate of new Covid-19 cases in the state stands at 1.8 per cent to 2 per cent. A negative RT-PCR report or a vaccination certificate for both doses is mandatory to visit Goa," the Chief Minister told news agency ANI on Friday. Sawant added that new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will be set in view of the upcoming festive season.

Meanwhile, Goa registered 97 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Friday, raising the tally of infections in the state to 1,71,705, a state health department official told PTI.

A total of 133 patients were discharged from hospitals taking the count of recoveries in the state to 1,67,556. One person succumbed to the infection during the day, taking the Goa's death toll to 1,157, according to the state health department official.

The coastal state is now left with 992 active cases, he explained. As many as 4,685 swab samples were tested during the day, raising the total number of tests conducted in the state to 10,83,561, the official added.

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