States gear up for Unlock 1.0 despite surge in COVID-19 cases

A day before the country enters the first of the three-phase unlock plan after 75 days of lockdown, the states have issued guidelines and standard operating procedure (SOP) regarding the ‘dos and dont’s’ for people to keep a check on the spread of coronavirus.

Delhi

Due to the surge in cases of coronavirus infection in the national capital, various steps have been taken by the heads and management bodies of prominent shrines in the city that draw huge numbers of devotees. This includes setting up sanitisation tunnels, prohibiting prasad distribution and floral offerings, using thermal guns to measure body temperatures, removing carpets and promoting the use of the Aarogya Setu app.

The Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, said that all the safety measures have been taken at the historical mosque that is set to reopen on Monday. He, however, said the government should reconsider its decision to open religious places as COVID-19 cases are fast increasing in Delhi.

The Congress too, on Sunday, said that 25 per cent positivity rate of COVID-19 in Delhi indicates the onset of community transmission and that this was not the right time to unlock the city. However, the Delhi government has decided to open restaurants, religious places and shopping malls, as well as its state borders from June 8.

Haryana

The Haryana government has also decided to allow reopening of places of worship and shopping malls for public in a regulated manner across the state from June 8, except in Gurgaon and Faridabad districts, which are worst-hit by COVID-19.

Besides, hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services would be reopened with generic preventive measures across the state. The timing of opening for all would be between 9 am and 8 pm to ensure compliance of night curfew between 9 pm and 5 am, it said.

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday stressed that dedicated COVID-19 hospitals and even general hospitals should be inspected regularly and concrete arrangements should be made for quarantine centres and community kitchens.

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He also directed officials to make a comprehensive work plan to provide employment to labourers from June 15.

“He directed divisional commissioners to review the various developmental works and revenue-related activities in their areas,” said a statement issued by the UP Chief Minister’s Office.

Gujarat

Temples, mosques, churches and other places of worship outside COVID-19 containment zones in Gujarat are also planning to open their doors for devotees from Monday after over two months, while taking all precautions to check the spread of COVID-19.

To maintain social distancing and avoid crowding, some of the religious places have decided to organise prayers in shifts and even start a token system to specify time slots to devotees for visits.

The famous Somnath temple in Gir Somnath district will open for local devotees from Monday, but visitors from other districts will have to first register themselves online, starting June 12, an official of the temple trust said. Devotees have been asked to mandatorily wear face masks, get sanitised before entering the temple premises, and not bring elderly people (those above 65 years of age) and children (below to 10 years) with them, he said. The temple will only allow priests to conduct the aarti with no presence of devotees, the official said.

The Ambaji temple in Banaskantha district, a major pilgrimage site in north Gujarat, will open from June 12 and allow devotees to visit the place in three shifts every day, starting at 7.30 am and ending at 10.15 pm, the temple trust said in a statement.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had held a video conference with religious leaders from different communities and urged them to ensure adherence to lockdown guidelines while opening the places of worship for devotees. He asked them to make arrangements of token systems for visitors so that they visit the religious place at specified time slots to avoid crowding.

Karnataka

In Karnataka, temples and mosques will reopen on Monday, but churches are set to allow its faithful from June 13, giving itself the time to sensitise them and parish priests about the guidelines to be followed as part of the fight against the deadly virus.

In a bid to prevent spread of coronavirus which has affected over 5,000 people in the state, it has specified conditions such as social distancing, no distribution of teertha (charanamruta) or prasada, no temple bells for devotees and a bar on special pooja or archana.

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Accordingly, temples, mosques and churches have painted social distancing boxes where devotees will have to stand in a queue and wait for their turn, while masks have been made mandatory for all, including priests.

Telangana

Likewise, from restricted entry to maintaining social distance, among other protocols, shopping malls in Hyderabad are also set to reopen from Monday.

Maharashtra

The Maharashtra government is yet to take a decision on opening religious places for devotees in the state as part of the lockdown relaxations, an official said on Sunday.

Though the Union Culture Ministry’s has approved the opening of 820 Archeological Survey of India-protected monuments which have places of worship from June 8, sources said that around 65 such monuments in Maharashtra are unlikely to be opened in view of the large number of coronavirus cases in the state.

Kerala and Andhra Pradesh

Two of India’s biggest shrines, Lord Ayyappa Temple in Kerala and that of Lord Venkateswara in Andhra Pradesh, will reopen for devotees in lines with the Centre’s guidelines but will do so with a slew of restrictions.

Older people and children will not be allowed in both the hill shrines, while there will be a cap on the number of devotees allowed darshan in the respective temples.

The Lord Balaji temple in Tirupati will open its doors to devotees on June 11, after a gap of more than 80 days, temple administering body TTD said.

The Sabarimala shrine will function from June 9 onwards, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in Thiruvananthapuram.

A government order also said all the offices in Kerala – public sector and semi-government offices, except those in the containment zone can also resume functioning in full capacity.

Despite the state government’s order, two prominent mosques in Kerala – Palayam Juma Masjid in Thiruvananthapuram and Muhiyuddhin Mosque in Kozhikode in north Kerala – have decided to defer opening.

Several priests and believers of the Angamally-Ernakulam diocese, the richest Catholic diocese in the country, have opposed the opening of shrines in hurry citing the warning of medical experts to buttress their point, Hindustan Times reported.

“Experts say peak of infection is yet to come. In Hinduism, a devotee worships his favourite god by offering prayers to the deity directly. But in Christianity, it is communitarian way of worship with clergy doing a lot of prayers with talking,” said senior priest and former spokesman of the Syro-Malabar church Father Paul Thelekkat.

As the part of accelerating efforts to restart long-stalled business activities, the Centre had on May 30 said Unlock-1 will be initiated in the country from June 8 under which the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown effectuated on March 25 will be relaxed to a great extent.

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Shopping malls, restaurants and religious places would be allowed to open outside coronavirus-containment areas from June 8. However, strict restrictions will remain in place till June 30 in the country’s worst-hit areas.