East Midnapore’s Digha recorded its first Covid-19 cases in the past few days, bringing the tourist town’s clean record to an end and threatening to cripple the hospitality sector for long.

On Saturday, a shopowner in Old Digha’s Nehru Market tested positive for the novel coronavirus. An ambulance driver at the Digha state general hospital was detected with the pathogen on Monday.

“Other than sending Digha into a tizzy, the outbreak of the disease is set to shut hotels yet again,” a hotelier in New Digha said, referring to the town’ jerky start at reviving its crucial hospitality industry following the stricter nationwide lockdown and an additional hurdle in the form of Cyclone Amphan.

A driver and a conductor of a state government-run bus service were admitted to the Digha state general hospital with symptoms of Covid-19 on Monday. Their test results are awaited. Digha’s Nehru Market has been closed since Saturday and marked as a containment zone.

“Digha had so far remained safe from the virus. People started checking into our hotels as a way to get away from the cities. But we are now compelled to confine guests to the hotel or ask them to leave,” said hotel manager Shankar Banerjee. He added that a majority of hotel employees had also left in panic.

“Digha is not safe anymore. We will be more safe at home than work in an environment close to Covid-19,” said Sanatan Maity, a hotel employee who caught the first private bus from Digha for his hometown Egra on Tuesday.

Hotel owners said the Covid cases, combined with the new two-day lockdown in the state a week, would spell an indefinite lull for the hospitality industry and trigger the closure of small to medium-sized properties in Digha.

The economy of the seaside town is linked to tourism. Of over 600 hotels that had reopened in Digha in July, only about 20 are planning to stay open beyond this week.

Vice-chairperson of the Digha-Sankarpur Development Authority, Akhil Giri, however, tried to allay the fears of the hoteliers.

“Covid-19 is under control at the beach town and hoteliers should not shut their establishment in panic,” he said.

However, most of the hoteliers and employees are not convinced.

“We are yet to be in the grip of the real Covid-19 pandemic. It is not clear when guests will come in high numbers and we will make profits,” said Digha Hoteliers’ Association joint secretary Dipra Das Chakraborty.

The developments in Digha have had a knock-on effect in Mandarmani where the Kalindi gram panchayat directed hotel owners to bar current guests from leaving the premises for bathing in the sea.

“Only a handful of bigger hotels can afford to stay open. The panchayat’s latest restrictions are a major blow for the rest, who will likely to close down indefinitely very soon,” said Mandarmani Hoteliers’ Association secretary Debdulal Das.