Shocking but true, Goa was fully packed beyond the capacity during new years eve with no Masks, and No Social Distancing, or fear of Covid amongst the people, and the same was proved by the large crowd of domestic tourists entered Goa to celebrate the New Years Eve with the bang. The people come down to Goa since it was the only option available in the country to party hard during the COVID.
This article is about the confessions of the Indian tourists who partied hard in Goa like there is no pandemic. Despite the fact that India has 10 million Covid cases which are the second-highest in the world and most of the places in the county had implemented the night curfew, Goa remained the only options for all party revellers to welcome the new year with the bang.
“I partied every single day, at every different venue possible,” said Hardik Katariya, a 25-year-old blockchain consultant from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad who had flown down to Goa to celebrate the new year. “I Wasn’t afraid of the CORONAVIRUS, to be honest, I almost forgot that it even existed,” he told the VICE News World.
When the fear of curfew prompted most of the metros cities in like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune to impose the night Curfew during New Year’s Eve, Goa was the only state that did not implement any restrictions, even there was no police patrolling on the highways this time to check the Drunken Drivers.
The crowd started entering Goa right from the time Christmas season began in the state. All the major beaches in Goa started getting crowded with domestic tourists and none of them was seen wearing masks or maintaining any social distancing. Meanwhile this year there were no foreign tourists in Goa (except for those who stayed back since the pandemic started in India) and hence the hoteliers and other establishments had to remain dependent on the Indian tourists alone.
The Casinos were filled with tourists with many celebrities performing in all the major offshore casinos in Goa. The famous Titos lane was hardly having a space left for the free movement of people around.
“Yesterday, I was going to Candolim, around late evening and I literally saw a whole group of tourists roaming without masks and not maintaining any social distance. Later, when I went to a nearby supermarket called Newton’s, I saw multiple tourists trying to enter in groups and without masks”, said a local from Mapusa. (source)
Meanwhile, on the eve of the New Year, the health minister of Goa remembered to move the file to impose the night curfew but the CM did not approve of the same saying the government has not taken any official decision to impose the night curfew in the state.
Sawant Told The Media that on Wednesday that 40-45 lakh tourists are recorded to have entered Goa on the account of celebrating the new year on 31 December. “We are implementing all COVID19 protocols making people aware about its importance,” he said while adding that none of the UK returnees in Goa have tested positive for a new strain of Covid-19 as yet. Last month, health authorities in Goa were trying to trace over 600 people who arrived from the UK and UAE.
According to the health minister of Goa Vishwajit Rane, Goa Airport alone was getting the movement of nearly 24 thousand people on a daily basis during a new year’s time. Flight arrivals in Goa have touched the highest levels since the pandemic began with the once-busy airport handling 72 arrivals and departures on December 27, – highest since domestic flights resumed operation – in the strongest indication that year-end holidaying has not been dampened by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. However, this enthusiasm could be there only for the New Year celebrations which is the biggest attraction in Goa where tourism contributes to 18 percent of the state gross domestic product (Source).
Katariya was one of them who arrived in Goa to celebrate the NYE on 27th December. “On Dec. 27, when I went to Goa, I was chilling by the beach almost every day,” Katariya told VICE World News. “No one was concerned about COVID-19. No one wore masks. People were swimming in the sea in crowds. Even my friends and I wore masks just to make sure we don’t get fined by traffic cops while we drove around in our rented cars.”
While Kataria was away from his hometown where they still have daily lockdowns between 9 PM and 6 AM, Goa felt liberating. “I wasn’t afraid of coronavirus, to be honest, because I almost forgot that it even existed.”
The Covid cases started rising in the state of Goa after the opening of the borders when Goa had no single case of infection but slowly it became the hub of Covid cases and numerous deaths. Goan people are still under the fear that history might get repeated but to date, there is no spike in the cases reported in the state with mortality rate has gone down to almost Zero.
100’s of videos like this out of Goa. No restrictions,no masks & now all these people will travel back to their homes & families across the country.
I can’t even imagine what’s coming in the weeks ahead.
Find it strange that the central govt has allowed its CM to act like this. pic.twitter.com/zf7VSy9JhS— Nivedith Alva (@nivedithalva) January 1, 2021
कोई नही रोक सकता देश मे कोरोना को बढ़ने से……
New year party without mask and distance ….. #covid19india #covid19 #goa @CPMumbaiPolice @MumbaiPolice pic.twitter.com/ZKpzbd0kJI— दीक्षा रोशनी सैनी (@dikshasaini8851) January 1, 2021
New Year Party 2021 at GOA https://t.co/Na6A8MJwwa via @YouTube
— Marlies Meister (@2006goa1989) December 31, 2020
Just after the New Year’s Eve party in Goa hundreds of videos and posts went viral on various social media platforms. The images and video clips posted by the party-goers themselves and shared by many who were horrified by the callousness of partygoers spotted without masks in crowded venues.
There seems to be no fear amongst the people locals as well the tourists about the consequences of not wearing the masks and maintaining the social distancing. This is despite reports from November which said that the fine for not wearing masks in public places in Goa has been doubled from Rs 100 to Rs 200.
The coronavirus-induced has cost the state’s tourism industry Rs 1,000 crore in earnings, Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry said. A report by the state tourism department and a private consultancy firm said Goa’s tourism industry may have suffered the loss of between Rs 2,000 to Rs 7,200 crore and job losses in the range of 35 percent to 58 percent due to the pandemic. (Source)
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