Karnataka bans tourism in Kodagu till further orders

The Karnataka government on Tuesday banned all tourism activities in the Kodagu district with immediate effect till further orders, in view of rising COVID-19 cases.

An order issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Anis Kanmani Joy said that all resorts and homestays are to be closed for public and tourists till further orders.

The order has asked owners of homestays or resorts not to take any new bookings and ordered to cancel the future bookings and refund the money back. However, it read that if someone is already staying in those resorts they can stay till their booking period is over, according to a report by ANI.

Earlier, Karnataka and Tourism department issued relaxed guidelines and norms in the second week of June to open and run resorts and homestays to bring back normalcy.

Kodagu, also called Coorg, is a district in Karnataka bordering the state of Kerala.

According to the health department, there are 78 COVID-19 cases in the district till July 6. The state has reported 25,317 COVID-19 cases including, 14,389 active cases, 10,527 recovered and 401 deaths.