Bhubaneswar: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) will decide on Friday about the reopening of the temple for the common public. The temple is most likely to reopen from February 1 after once again being closed down post-arrival of the third wave of the pandemic. The chief of SJTA, Krishan Kumar has chaired a virtual discussion in this regard on 28 January.

As the cases of the Omicron has been declining gradually the SJTA has decided to allow the visit of the devotees inside the Three Jagannath Temple. The Temple was announced to remain shut down from January 10 to 31 after a visible upsurge in COVID-19 cases, steered by the new Covid-19 variant Omicron and resulting in the third wave, in Odisha. Cases have begun declining in the state and the health experts have reflected that the third wave may have crossed its peak in Odisha.

The district administration of Puri has already withdrawn the constraints on Thursday from preventing people outside the Puri district from conducting cremations at Swargadwar.

While interacting with the media in this regard, the Collector of Puri, Samarth Verma told the administration decided to watch and map the daily reports of the COVID cases to avoid any further complications due to the reopening of the temple the devotees.

-OdishaAge