Kerala's Sabarimala Temple to open for devotees from July 17 to 21

Thiruvananthapuram: The Sabarimala temple situated in Kerala is set to open for devotees from 17 to 21 July amid Covid-appropriate norms. The temple authorities in a statement on Saturday said that the devotees will have to strictly follow certain Covid norms in view of the pandemic situation. 

As per the new guidelines, devotees only with complete Covid-19 vaccination certificates or negative RT-PCR report issued within 48 hours will be allowed to enter the temple. Maximum of 5,000 devotees will be allowed through online booking system.

It is to be noted that at time when country is seeing a declining trend in number of daily covid cases, Kerala has recorded an increase in number of active Covid cases  in the past two days. More than 1,10,000 cases still remain active in the state despite the covid surveillance. 

Kerala has been recording more than 10,000 cases on a daily basis over the past month. More than 30 per cent of the total cases are accounted from Kerala. Of the total population of the state (3.6 crores), eight percent (nearly 30 lakh) have so far been infected by Covid. 

According to the data provided by the Union Health Ministry, over 61 lakh people in Maharashtra have tested positive for Covid while dishing out its positivity rate at less than 5 per cent. On the flip side, Kerala with a lesser population compared to Maharashtra, recorded a Test Positivity Rate of more than 10 per cent, which is the reason to get the state under scanner.