Goa: Clubs, casinos shut & nothing to do, tourists line up for vaccination

CALANGUTE: With entertainment venues such as nightclubs and casinos shut and watersports suspended due to pandemic restrictions, a number of tourists in the Calangute-Candolim beach belt are using their holiday to get themselves vaccinated against Covid-19 instead.
Medical officer at the Candolim primary health centre, Dr Roshan Nazareth, confirmed this. “We are witnessing a lot of tourists visiting the vaccination centre,” he said.
Nikhil Pillai, a Delhi-based IT specialist who took his first shot late last month, said he visits Goa two-three times a year as he has a holiday home at Nagoa, Bardez.
“Due to the pandemic, I work from home. I was infected with Covid at the end of April while in Delhi and was told that I would have to wait for 90 days to get vaccinated. As I had planned to travel to Goa around that time, I thought it would be a good idea to get vaccinated here,” he said.
Like Pillai, Pooja Biltoria from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, also decided to take her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at Candolim, recently. “Travelling and working from home, I was looking for a peaceful place where I could continue working. It was an added advantage that I could get vaccinated in Goa, too,” she said.
Ayush medical officer Dr Suvira Bandekar, who is in charge of the Covid-19 vaccination centre set up in a house along the Candolim-Sinquerim road, said many tourists do visit the centre to inquire if they could get a jab. “It is likely that they are unable to get vaccinated easily in their home states due to high demand and long queues,” she said.
Interestingly, a few foreign tourists, who have been stuck in Goa due the Covid-induced suspension of regular international flights have also opted to get vaccinated in the sunshine state. “I’m very happy with the experience of being vaccinated in Goa. It is a quick, professional procedure, well-organised and available to everyone who seeks it,” Kateryn, a tourist from Ukraine, said. “In my country I would have had to wait longer and the vaccine is not available in stock.”
Anticipating an increase in tourist arrivals in the near future if the government further relaxes Covid restrictions, hoteliers and resort owners have also begun calling their non-Goan staff back to the state. “Many such staff arrive at the railway stations from their home states and head straight to the vaccination centre,” Nazareth said.
“Goa allows anybody working in the tourism industry to take the vaccine. That’s why I came here,” Pallabh Mondal from West Bengal, said. Mondal, who returned to Goa recently and works at a restaurant in Candolim, said he expects to remain here till the end of the coming season. “We have to work by maintaining Covid protocols,” he said.
However, it’s early days yet, Calangute sarpanch and hotelier Shawn Martins said. “Staff are returning, but slowly.”