Puri (Odisha): The famous Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odisha opens its doors for the devotees on December 23. The temple was closed for a period of nine months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The temple will open in a graded manner.
In the first five days of reopening the temple, the local residents of Puri will get the first opportunity to enter the temple. However, in the light od the rush of devotees on the New Year's day, the temple will remain closed on January 1 and January 2.
However, from January 3, the temp[le is expected to be kept open for all. The temple reopened today following all the COVID-19 related protocols.
Earlier in December, the State Endowments Commission recommended the reopening of temples in Odisha, while strictly adhering to the COVID-19 protocol.
Odisha's Chief Secretary A K Tripathy said that there was a state-wide demand to reopen the other religious places after the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) initiated various measures to open the temple from December 23.
Following the coronavirus outbreak in the country, all the places of worship were closed since March 22.
The state capital, Bhubaneshwar preserves around 700 temples in the city. It is a major destination for the tourists as well as the pilgrims.
A few of the well-known temples of the state are Rajarani Temple, Ananta Vasudeva Temple, Shree Lingaraj Temple, Mukteshwar Temple, Brahmeshwar Temple and many others.
The COVID tally of Odisha is 3,26,915 on Tuesday. The death toll due to the virus is 1,843. At present, the total number of active COVID-19 cases are 3,063. Odisha has so far tested over 66.65 lakh samples for COVID-19. 29,721 samples were tested on December 21.