Restaurants, hotels alert! Don't fall for fake news - Modi government has issued statement

Are you running any restaurant, hotel, food outlet or eatery? Then it's an important and must read news for you. A fake news related to hotels and restaurants operations was going viral on social media, and now Modi government has issued a statement to clear the air on the matter. 

A fake letter claiming that hotels/restaurants will remain closed till 15th October 2020 due to Coronavirus outbreak doing the rounds in social media in the name of Ministry of Tourism and creating panic among whole tourism sector.

Now, the Ministry of Tourism has clarified that “no such letter has been issued by Ministry of Tourism”and people must not believe such kind of fake news.

The same has also been clarified on PIBFactCheck. "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. Do not believe in rumours!, " PIB Fact Check tweeted.

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.

Do not believe in rumours! pic.twitter.com/efRx3PWTj0

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) April 8, 2020

An official statement says, "Ministry of Tourism had already issued denials on Social media and lodged a complaint with cybercrime unit of Mumbai police. The PIB Fact Check Unit also issued denials a few days back but the fake message is circulating again."

"PIBFactCheck has reissued the clarification yesterday also. It is requested to all to ignore such messages and only believe on official communication," the statement added.

On popular demand, the #FakeNews claiming that hotels/resturants will remain closed till 15th October 2020 due to #Coronavirusoutbreak, is being reposted.

It's again clarified that no such order has been issued by Tourism Ministry.

Stay clear of romours mongers. https://t.co/Qmjc6kNXEc

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) April 21, 2020

Meanwhile, the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 640 and the number of cases to 19,984 in the country on Wednesday, according to the Union health ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases is 15,474, while 3,869 people have been cured and discharged, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
The total number of cases includes 77 foreign nationals. 

A total of 37 deaths were reported since Tuesday evening -- 19 from Maharashtra, 13 from Gujarat, three from West Bengal and one each from Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand. Of the 640 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 251 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 90, Madhya Pradesh at 76, Delhi at 47, Rajasthan at 25, Telangana at 23 and Andhra Pradesh at 22.

The death toll has reached 20 in Uttar Pradesh while Tamil Nadu has reported 18 deaths and Karantaka has registered 17 fatalities due to COVID-19. Punjab has registered 16 deaths while West Bengal has reported 15 fatalities so far. The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu and Kashmir, while Kerala, Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each. Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data.