Hyderabad: Not perturbed by COVID-19

Charminar: Even as the State government announced closure of cinema halls, clubs, gyms, swimming pools, museums, zoo parks, indoor and outdoor stadiums and public gatherings, as a measure to contain possible spread of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the State, there appears to be no impact in Irani hotels, which are favourite places for youth to hang around in parts of Old City.

Several areas in city such as Charminar, Shalibanda, Moghalpura, Santosh Nagar, Chandrayangutta, Mallepally, Nampally, Hyderguda, Mehdipatnam, Tolichowki, there appears to be no major change in attitude of youngsters, who continue to enjoy their time with friends at Irani tea hotels.

While a majority of people are in panic fearing spread of virus and are strictly following safety measures such as using face masks, hand sanitisers and staying indoors, it seems youth are putting up a brave face and barely appear worried. Even during night hours several groups of youth are seen sitting and chit-chatting in hotels and on roads. "Unnecessary panic is being created.

Do you want even the Irani hotels to be closed?" questioned, Syed Muneer, a youngster, while objecting to being clicked.

According to hoteliers, the footfall of customers for having tea and snacks and also gathering of youngsters in hotels and parking area remained the same. "For the last 2-3 days we are asking them to leave hotel after having tea and snacks and not to loiter around", said a manager at Lucky Hotel in Old City.

Speaking on dining, Ali Raza, owner of another branch of Lucky Hotel in Nagole, said that the Old City is a totally different world in itself. The footfall of customers had decreased in Nagole and another branch in city, but it has not affected much in Old City branch, located in Santosh Nagar. "The customers at city branches had decreased by 40 per cent and there was minimal decrease in Old City branch," he pointed.

He said that, earlier most of them preferred Chicken dishes and kept mutton as optional. But now following rumours, chicken is being avoided and mutton preferred. To dispel apprehensions over consumption of Chicken, some of the restaurateurs also started pasting posters approved by government.

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The management Bahar Café located in Hyderguda informed that the flow of customer was the same in terms of locals for dinning, but there was almost 20 percent drop in terms of non-local visitors. He also felt that most of the customers were now preferring mutton to chicken.

Mohammed Majid a customer at Bahar Hotel said that nothing can stop Hyderabadi's when it came to food, especially Biryani, he added.