A priest and 16 policemen on duty at the Ram Temple site in Ayodhya has tested positive for COVID-19 just a few days ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony (bhumi pujan) which is slated to be held on August 5.
As per reports, Pradeep Das, who is an assistant to the chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das had now been advised to be in-home quarantine following the test.
Das is one of the four priests who performs puja regularly at the site.
The other priests, including the chief priest, have all tested negative for the virus.
The policemen who had been found to be COVID-19 had been asked to be in-home quarantine.
Preparations are in full swing for the grand ceremony which is expected to be attended by 200 people.
Uttar Pradesh’s coronavirus tally rose to 77,334, including 29,997 active cases, 45,807 recoveries, and 1,530 deaths, according to the data of the Union health ministry.
Meanwhile, India on Thursday registered the biggest single-day spike of 52123 coronavirus cases taking the total tally to 15,83,792.
With 775 new deaths reported in the past 24 hours, the country’s total death toll now stands at 34968.
According to the Union health ministry, there are 528242 active coronavirus cases in the country currently.
With a total of 1020582 people discharged from hospitals, the total recovery rate in the country is 64.44 per cent, according to the health ministry’s data.