Indians flocked to beaches, tourist attractions and fully booked flights despite authorities warning to be cautious as the number of Omicron infections increased rapidly.
In the western Indian state of Goa, known as a popular tourist destination for its beaches and casinos, hotels are operating at full capacity with a booking rate of around 90%.
"It's been a year, people haven't celebrated anything. This year, they're going on vacations, birthdays, and weddings. Our hotel occupancy rate has reached pre-Covid levels." , Nilesh Shah, an official with the Goa Tourism Department told Reuters. Shah estimates one million visitors arrived in Goa in December alone, even before restrictions were eased across the country.
People flock to shopping during Christmas in the capital New Delhi. Photo: Reuters
90 flights land in Goa every day, bringing the frequency of air travel back to pre-pandemic levels. Flights are reported to be always full, despite officials asking people to exercise caution amid the rapidly spreading variant of Omicron.
The Indian government also anticipates the complications of the epidemic in the near future, when festivals and events to welcome the New Year 2022 continue to take place. Besides, in public areas such as local markets, people are also crowded.
That is also the reason why at the end of December, the eastern state of Odisha announced new restrictions, banning large gatherings until the end of January 2, 2022. The number of people entering the church during Christmas is also limited. The same thing happened in New Delhi.
India faced two major disease outbreaks in September 2020 and April-May this year, recording a total of 34.8 million infections and nearly 480,000 deaths from Covid-19. On December 29, India recorded 9,195 infections and 302 deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours, of which the number of Omicron cases was 781. In the past two weeks, the country has recorded about 7,000 new cases per day on average. .
The government of this country is racing against time to vaccinate the entire population of 944 million adults. 88% of Indians have had one shot and 61% have had two.
