Kodagu admin cracks down on homestays housing WFH tourists

Mysuru: A home stay in Kodagu has been sealed down and the police have filed an FIR against its owner for accommodating tourists. Hosting tourists is banned in homestays, lodges and resorts in Kodagu.

According to police, the home stay in Margod gram panchayat limits at Madikeri taluk in Kodagu accommodated three tourists for the past three days.

Given a rampant increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, Kodagu deputy commissioner Anees Kanmani Joy issued an official order banned the accommodation of tourists in homestays, lodges and resorts in Kodagu on 7 July.

So far, 184 people in Kodagu have tested positive for Covid 19 and 113 are active. And three people have died due to Covid-19 in Kodagu.

So far four employees of two private resorts in Kodagu have tested positive for Covid 19 in addition to a 70-year-old owner of a homestay at Bittangala in Virajpet.

In fact, after the innkeeper of Bittangala tested positive for Covid 19, the Kodagu Hotel, homestays, Resorts and Lodges Association voluntarily declared lockdown of their properties from 25 June.

When the lockdown was lifted, hotels, resorts and homes stays were permitted to open on 8 June. But of the over 200 hotels, restaurants, lodges and resorts  and over 4000 homestays in Kodagu, only 2-3 percent opened.

While many resorts and homestays in Kodagu came up with 'workation' packages for those working from home with long-term accommodation at nominal prices with good internet connections, those from Bengaluru started rushing up and their occupancy picked to 20-30 percent, according to Nagendra Prasad B R, president of the Kodagu District Hotel, Resorts and Restaurants Association.

A majority of Covid-19 positive cases in Kodagu were from Bengaluru, a few from other states and countries.

The source of infection of many cases remains untraced, and a lot of people with symptoms of influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infection are testing positive for Covid-19 in Kodagu, which indicated the possibility of community spread.

Several local people around these resorts and home stays have expressed anxiety about the spread of infection through tourists.

So as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of Covid 19, the accommodation of tourists from other districts, states and countries in home stays, resorts and lodges in Kodagu has been banned by Kodagu district administration.

A similar decision has been taken banning accomodation at resorts and homestays around Nagarahole forest, Kabini reservoir belt in HD Kote taluk in Mysuru district and also at resorts and homestays in Bandipur forest belt in Chamarajnagar and those at Chikmagalur district.