An message has gone viral on social media which claims to be a notice from the Ministry of Tourism which claims that “Hotels, restaurants, resorts all over India will remain closed till October 15, 2020, due to coronavirus disease spread all over the world.”
The purported notice further warns about action against the owners, in case of non-compliance to the order. The supposed order from the Ministry of Tourism is laden with grammatical errors that raise aspersions about its authenticity at the very onset.
Fact-checking website FactHunt debunked this falsehood. On April 8, the Ministry of tourism had clarified that such a notice was not issued by the Government of India. It urged people to rely on verified information shared by the official social media handles of the Ministry and refrain from forwards such dubious Whatsapp messages.
The MoT, GoI, requests your attention to kindly refrain from forwarding a certain fake message regarding the closure of hotels/restaurants. We assure you that we have not issued such a message. pic.twitter.com/RgCrp86NdJ
— Ministry of Tourism (@tourismgoi) April 8, 2020
Moreover, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) also dubbed the circular as “fake” and appealed to people to not fall prey to rumours.
Be cautious of #Fake order claiming that hotels/resturants will remain closed till 15th October 2020 due to #Coronavirusoutbreak.#PIBFactCheck: The order is Fake and has NOT been issued by Ministry of Tourism.
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) April 8, 2020
Do not believe in rumours! pic.twitter.com/efRx3PWTj0
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nation-wide lockdown to curb the spread of Chinese coronavirus for three weeks which concludes on 14th April. On 11th April, the PM had a tele-conference with chief ministers of other states on further action on the lockdown. PM Modi will address the nation at 10 AM on 14th April where he is expected to inform the citizens about the future plan of action on coronavirus.
