For the first time in nearly two years of restricted entry on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the doors of the Lord Jagannath temple at Puri will be thrown open to devotees without the need to produce a vaccine certificate from February 21. This decision will impact millions of Jagannath devotees across the globe.
The Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Monday decided to relax the COVID restrictions for entry into the holy shrine. The decision has been taken in a Chhattisha Nijog meeting held in Puri following deliberation on the devotees’ sentiments and the current COVID situation.
Since the daily COVID cases have gone down considerably and almost all the people have been administered vaccines, the temple administration decided to relax the curbs, informed the Chief Administrator of SJTA, Krishan Kumar.
The temple was reopened on February 1, 2022, for the devotees after a brief closure of 20 days. As per the SOP released by the Temple administration, all devotees were required to bring their photo ID Card, namely, Aadhaar /Voter ID or any other photo ID card for identification, along with the final certificate for COVID-19 vaccination (of having taken two doses) or Covid-19 negative certificate (RT-PCR) of testing done within 96 hours before the visit to the temple.
However, with the fresh order by the temple administration, the devotees will be able to get darshan without any proof of vaccination from February 21.