VIJAYAWADA: With Andhra Pradesh witnessing a rapid surge in Covid-19 cases and temple employees testing positive, the State government has reintroduced restrictions in places of worship to ensure the safety of devotees and staff.
Endowments commissioner M Hari Jawaharlal on Monday issued orders in this regard and instructed executive officers to ensure enforcement of standard operating procedures, such as wearing masks, frequent use of hand sanitiser, and restricting entry of children aged below 10, people above 60 and pregnant women, in all temples to prevent a further surge in infections. Devotees will be allowed to the temples only after their body temperatures are screened with thermal guns.
The EOs were also asked to scale down the number of visitors to 1,000 per hour and cancel Antaralaya Darshanam. “Devotees will be allowed only up to a certain point inside the temple, and in queues as they must maintain adequate physical distancing. No archana will be performed, and prasadam, sathari and theertham will not be offered,” the order read.
The Endowments chief asked the officials to scale down the number of participants of special pujas/rituals, and encourage online services such as e-Hundi, e-donation and Paroksha Seva through aptemples.ap.gov.in.
Annaprasadam will no longer be served in dining halls and the distribution of food packets to the devotees has been stopped as the employees could be infected themselves. Temple premises will have to be sanitised thrice a day.
All temple officials, priests, staff, workers and security personnel will be required to wear double masks. “All ‘A’ category temples shall continue to perform Mrityunjaya Homam, Dhanvantri Homao, Seetala Homam, Ayushya Homam, Virata Parva Homam and Sundarakanda Parayanam daily.”