Covid-19 | Goa enforces strict restrictions to curb cases

The state of Goa imposed strict restrictions from Thursday night, to contain the rising coronavirus cases. The streets of the coastal state looked deserted on Friday after the four-day-long lockdown was enforced to bring down the rising covid-19 cases.

The restrictions came into force from Thursday night at 9 pm and will be applicable till Monday morning(6 am). During this period only essential services are allowed to function.

With the second wave of the pandemic, the state had witnessed a consistent rise in covid-19 cases and deaths, which had forced the state administration to restrict the movement of people and other public activities.

Activities allowed during the lockdown

The weekly markets are not allowed to open during the lockdown. All the casinos will also remain shut. Apart from essential services, industrial activities will also be allowed to function. The vaccination centers will function normally during the lockdown period

As per the statement given by a senior police officer from the state to the media, there has been hardly any traffic on roads and strict patrolling is underway to implement the restrictions, especially in urban areas. He also applauded people for cooperating with the administration by staying inside their homes.

The health department data showed that the state had recorded a 50 percent positivity rate on Thursday when out of 5,910 samples tested for coronavirus, 3,019 returned positive.

The Indian Medical Associations Goa unit on Friday also demanded that the lockdown be continued for 15 days or at least till the positivity rate drops to 10 per cent.

Goa has so far recorded 88,028 COVID-19 cases and 1,146 deaths. As of April 29, the tiny coastal state had 20,898 active cases.