BMC Withdraws COVID Restrictions On Entry Of Devotees To Religious Institutions In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: After Jagannath temple in Puri, devotees are allowed to go inside all temples and religious institutions in the capital city without any COVID related document.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), in an official order on Wednesday, modified its earlier guidelines on entry into religious institutions. So far, it was stipulated that only fully vaccinated people would be allowed to go inside to have darshan of the deities and offer puja.

As per the revised order, the BMC stated that considering the current scenario and coverage of vaccination, this stipulation has been relaxed. Now, the devotees will not be required to produce vaccination certificates or identity proof for visit to any religious institutions.

“Further, there will be no condition for priests and sevayats to produce double vaccination certificates,” the BMC order stated.

However, the municipal corporation stated that the religious institutions are required to ensure COVID appropriate behaviour like wearing face masks, maintaining social distance, and hand santisiation on their premises.

It may be noted that the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) allowed the devotees to enter the temple without producing the double-dose COVID vaccination certificate or RT-PCR negative test report from Monday.