The Bombay High Court at Goa on Monday permitted fully vaccinated residents and those who work in Goa to enter the State without a COVID-19 negative report till August 5.
A Division Bench of justices M.S. Sonak and M.S. Jawalkar allowed the workforce that includes people related to labour, construction and industries in Goa; those who run business in the State; all Goa residents who are required to travel outside of the State for work or medical reasons.
All the above have to produce verified certificates of receiving both shots of the COVID-19 vaccine before entering the State.
Relief till August 5
The Bench granted this relief till August 5 and will hear the matter again to decide if tourists who are fully vaccinated can also enter Goa without negative reports.
The expert committee of the Goa government recently recommended that travellers from other States possessing authentic vaccination certificates should be allowed to enter the State without a negative RT-PCR report.
The State had then filed an application in the court. It said, “The pandemic situation has substantially improved. There have been only 195 active cases as of July 6. The positivity rate is less than 5% and the recovery rate is 97% in the State.”
The application also mentioned that Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Nagaland and Meghalaya were allowing entry to those who were fully vaccinated and Punjab was even permitting those who had received their first dose.
The court passed the interim relief after its order on May 6 directed the authorities of Goa to not allow residents without a negative RT-PCR report done 72 hours before entering the State.
This was part of a bunch of public interest litigation petitions filed by the South Goa Advocates Association related to the COVID-19 preparedness.
