Rejoice, travellers, because now you don’t need a COVID-19 test to visit Goa. It is not mandatory to conduct COVID test on the arrival. Also, you will not be asked to isolate either. With state government issuing no e-pass for inter-district travel, one can easily visit different places. These all guidelines were issued by Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. However, the Goa CM was found positive for the novel coronavirus on Tuesday.

On the other side, Goa has also recommenced the bars with necessary preventive measures such as social distancing, temperature checks and use of face masks. Restaurants and cafes are already opened and hotels are back in business, too. Excluding the beach shacks and casinos as of now, the coastal state is open for travellers. The beach shacks will remain closed and are likely to restart after the monsoon in October. Casinos will remain shut for now. The new development will optimistically boost the economy of the tourist place as it is heavily dependent on travel and tourism.

In May, the coastal state was declared a green zone, as it was one of the states with the lowest number of COVID-19 cases in the country. Since then though, cases have been back on the surge and the state has witnessed a rise in the number of cases in the past month. By July 22, the cases had jumped to 4,167.