More than 30 percent Covid test reports presented at checkpoints by tourists to Goa are fake?

PANAJI: While domestic tourists have started visiting Goa once again, with the coastal state having opened up its borders, what is really worrying is the authenticity of the Covid reports that the incoming droves of tourists present at various checkpoints, including those at the airport, before they enter the state.

According to news reports, a fake RT-PCR test report can be obtained for as little as Rs 250 to Rs 300 at many places in North India without a fuss or delay.

And in nearly 30 percent of the cases, it is these ‘fake reports’ that are being used by domestic tourists to enter the state.

ALSO READ: Goans must prepare for one more season without loads of charters and foreign tourists

As there is no way to immediately check the authenticity of the reports carried and presented by the tourists, most of them get away without any scrutiny.

Not just that, the guards and staff checking the test reports at the State border checkposts, both near the Maharashtra border as well as the Karnataka border can be bribed to look the other way for as little as Rs 200 to Rs 300.

This poses a great danger, as no one knows when the third wave will hit. If in case (as it happened with the Delta variant in March-April), a new, unknown, highly contagious coronavirus variant emerges out of the blue, thousands if not lakhs of people could be infected in a matter of days, even before medical experts realize there is a new bug on the block.

According to a Times of India report, the North Goa collector Ajit Roy on Tuesday admitted that Covid-19 protocols are not being followed at the Patradevi (Maharashtra) checkpost, and issued fresh directions asking authorities at the Goa-Maharashtra border to maintain a register with details of buses and passengers.

ALSO READ: Reginaldo requests CM Sawant to insist upon Centre to permit air-bubbles for charter flights from Russia and UK

The move came after a passenger who regularly travels by bus along the Goa-Pune-Goa route flagged blatant violations there.

In a letter to Roy, he said that tourist and luxury bus drivers and helpers collect money to permit entry to those who are neither fully vaccinated nor hold a Covid-negative certificate.

The passenger, a Tiswadi (North Goa) resident, met the North Goa Collector and submitted video recordings of his claim, after which Roy’s directive went out, the TOI reported.