New Year, Old Habits: Viral Video of Packed Goa Beach Amid Covid Surge, Omicron Threat Adds to Worries

A large crowd was seen at a popular tourist spot in Goa despite the state’s worrying Covid surge. Goa has been seeing a large number of tourists since late December, when revellers arrived for the Christmas-New Year festival season. The development also comes amid the rise of Omicron cases in India, dubbed to be much more infectious than the deadly Delta variant.

According to officials, the massive influx of tourists has resulted in the COVID-19 positivity rate surpassing 10% on Sunday. In a video shared by CNN-News18‘s Herman Gomes, hundreds of people can be seen walking on a road near Baga Beach in North Goa in the video.

According to data released by the Health Ministry, 388 people tested positive in Goa in the last 24 hours.

The new cases brought the total in the coastal state to 1,81,570, while one death brought the total to 3,523.

Thousands of domestic tourists flocked to Goa’s beaches, pubs, and nightclubs to ring in the New Year, despite the government imposing stricter restrictions to combat the latest variant of the coronavirus.

In Goa, authorities ordered hotels, restaurants, and casinos to admit only guests who had valid vaccination certificates or proof of a negative test result.

Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic began 2 years ago, experts have also stressed on individual precautions – wearing masks, distancing physically – one must take to not get infected. However, worrying scenes of people breaking Covid-19 protocol are being reported. Visuals of people in various states at functions, either without masks or jam-packed sans physical distancing, were reported by news agencies.

People also thronged religious places to pay their obeisance amid the New Year. However, the density of crowds also cast worries over the potential spread of Covid-19 in the days to come.

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