Jagannath Temple has been closed to worshipers since March due to COVID-19 (file)
Puri:
At least 351 servants and 53 employees at the Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri of Odisha have tested positive for COVID-19, an official said.
A total of 404 people engaged in the 12th-century shrine have tested positive for the virus, said Ajay Jena, administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).
He said Lord Jagannath’s rituals, however, continue as usual despite the absence of so many servants.
Jagannath Temple has been closed to worshipers since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The official said most of the servants were in home isolation after testing positive for the infection and there was a shortage of knowledgeable people to perform rituals.
At least a group of 13 priests each is required to perform rituals for the sibling deities – Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra, and Lord Jagannath. Therefore, the presence of 39 priests apart from the other servants is essential for performing the daily rituals of Lord Vishnu’s oldest temple here, which has been worshiped for centuries in the form of Lord Jagannath.
The peculiarity of the Puri temple is that the rituals are interconnected with each other, they start from early morning until late at night. If one ritual is not performed, the next one cannot be performed according to temple tradition, said Bhaskar Mishra, a researcher in the Jagannath culture.
If more minions test positive for the virus in the next few days, there may be a problem. The administration is considering a proposal to hire junior servants, he said.
So far, a total of 9,704 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in Puri District, of which 1,255 cases are reported in the region of Puri Municipality alone.
Of the 52 deaths reported in the district, nine are in the area of Puri Municipality. At least three of the nine dead in the city of Puri are servants engaged in temple rituals, district health officials
said.
The administration had carried out the COVID-19 test of all servants engaged in Lord Jagannath’s annual Rath Yatra. Then only two servants had tested positive for COVID-19.
However, the infection struck Puri about a month after the festival, an official said, adding that the SJTA used to provide preventative homeopathy medicines to the families of the servants to protect them.
Meanwhile, the state government in an affidavit informed the High Court of Orissa that it was not possible to reopen the temple, including the Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, for worshipers under the COVID pandemic. . The temple has remained closed to worshipers since March.
