The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram has been shut for devotees till 15 October after 12 staff members, including 10 priests, were infected with coronavirus.
While darshans have been disallowed, daily pujas will be carried out by the tantri, NDTV quoted the temple's executive officer Ratheeshan IAS as saying.
Among those infected are two chief priests, eight sub-priests and two guards, though all of them are currently asymptomatic.
The temple had opened for the public only in late August with various preventive measures against COVID-19 in place.
Kerala has recorded close to 2,60,000 cases of coronavirus so far, with the death toll standing at 930. The number of daily new cases in the state has seen a spike in recent days.
In India, more than 69 lakh COVID-19 cases have been reported till now, with 1,06,490 fatalities. However, the number of new infections in the country as a whole has come down in recent days from the highs of 90,000+ cases last month.
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