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COVID-19 Religious Places Reopen In Maharashtra With These COVID-19 Safety Measures
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Religious Places Reopen In Maharashtra With These COVID-19 Safety Measures

As religious places reopen in Maharashtra the state government issued a fresh set of guidelines for devotees, to avoid the spread of COVID-19

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By: Priyanka Chakrabarti Published: Nov 23, 2020 02:55 PM IST

Religious Places Reopen In Maharashtra With These COVID-19 Safety Measures

As religious places reopen in Maharashtra, the state government issued a fresh set of guidelines for devotees, to avoid the spread of Coronavirus. By Tanvi Jain

As the Maharashtra government has reopened places of worship across the state, including, Siddhivinayak temple, Shirdi Sai Baba templeShri Vitthal temple in Satara, and Tulja Bhavani temple in Osmanabad, among others — there are certain safety protocols that devotees need to adhere to in order to stay safe and curb the spread of the virus.  

Some of these measures as mentioned in the recently issued SOPs include — permission to enter the premises to be given only to asymptomatic visitors, that too not without a mask, the authorities must make sure to do a thermal screening of all visitors, provide them with hand sanitizer and prohibit large gatherings in order to maintain adequate social distancing 

The guidelines also mention against the sprinkling of holy water, distribution of prasad, touching of idols or holy booksand also against the entry of children below 10 years of age. Moreover, visitors must be allowed only in limited numbers per day and the timings must also be kept staggered. In fact, for entry into Siddhivinayak and Shirdi Sai Baba temples, devotees must first book a time slot via their official websites. Furthermore, to visit the Shirdi Sai Baba temple, one will need to furbish a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test at the entrance. 

“A hundred devotees allowed every hour & 1,000 devotees can visit every day. Devotees have to download Temple’s app & fill in the required info,” Chairman, Shree Siddhivinayak Temple Trust, Mumbai, Aadesh Bandekar told ANI. 

“We can’t forget that the demon Coronavirus is still among us. Even though this demon is slowly falling silent now, we cannot be complacent. Citizens need to follow discipline. Just like discipline and restraint were observed while celebrating Holi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Pandharpur wari (annual pilgrimage), followers of other faiths also celebrated festivals like Eid, Mount Mary festival by keeping the COVID-19 safety protocol in mind,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had recently said in a statement as reported by the media.

Related: Home-Isolation No More Mandatory For Domestic Travellers With New Maharashtra Quarantine Rules

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