VISAKHAPATNAM: The famous Sri Kanaka Mahalakshmi temple at Burujupeta and one of its sub-temble, Ambika Bagh temple near Jagadamba junction in Visakhapatnam, will be closed for darshan for devotees on Monday with some of the staff of the two temples testing positive for COVID-19.
Four staff members, including two sweepers, one musician and an official of the Sri Kanaka Mahalakshmi temple and a priest of Ambika Bagh temple tested positive for the virus.
Sri Kanaka Mahalakshmi temple Executive Officer S Jyothi Madhavi said following a request to the district administration and district medical and health officer, Covid tests were conducted for 116 temple staff of the temple and 10 members of Ambica temple on Friday. The results came on Sunday in which the five tested positive.
With this, the two temples were closed and thoroughly sanitised with sodium hypochlorite solution. The temple will be reopened only after advice from the higher authorities, she said.
The EO said that they have taken all precautions as per Covid guidelines after the temple reopened as per the government order.
All devotees and temple staff were screened with thermal scanners and social distancing was maintained in queue lines. Masks and sanitisers were also given to temple staff, she said.
Stating that they are clueless as to how the staff and priest got affected, she said they might have been infected at their residential areas. All those who tested positive are asymptomatic and the authorities are trying to trace primary contacts of the positive tested persons.