The Goa government has made five-day quarantine compulsory for people from Kerala, specially students and those coming for work purposes, in the wake of a surge in COVID-19 cases in the southern state, officials said. While students and employees must remain in institutional quarantine, others will be required to stay in home quarantine for five days. In a notification issued on Sunday, the Goa administration said "all students and employees coming from Kerala" shall undergo institutional quarantine for five days.
The arrangements for quarantining students will be made by the administrators or principals of the educational institutions, the notification said. For the employees, it shall be done by respective offices, companies or firms, it adds. The notification further said that after the end of five days, those who were quarantined shall undergo RT-PCR test. People, other than students and employees, arriving from Kerala should produce the RT-PCR negative test report and remain in home quarantine for five days, the notification said.
"The constitutional functionaries, health care professionals and their spouses, children below two years of age, those arriving to attend death of a family member or medical emergency and passengers in transit from and to Kerala via any mode of transport are exempted from being quarantined," the notification added.
The Goa administration also extended the ongoing statewide curfew till September 20, continuing the ban on several activities, including casinos, in the coastal state. The 24-hour curfew was first imposed on May 9 this year and since then it has been extended regularly. The Goa government has opened a majority of activities in the tourist state, but activities like casinos are yet to be reopened.
Kerala on Sunday reported 20,240 fresh coronavirus cases and 67 deaths, which pushed the total infections in the state to 43,75,431 and the fatalities to 22,551, the state government said.
Goa's COVID-19 tally on Sunday increased by 38 to reach 1,74,837, while one death took the toll to 3,217, an official said.
(With PTI inputs)