Mumbai's Siddhivinayak Temple provides hand sanitisers to devotees amid COVID-19 outbreak

In its bid to mitigate the outbreak of coronavirus, the Siddhivinayak Ganapati temple in Mumbai is providing hand sanitizers to devotees coming for 'darshan' as a precautionary measure. This development comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared coronavirus a pandemic and Europe as its epicentre with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China. 

Aadesh Bandekar, chairman of the temple's Trust spoke to ANI and apprised about the precautions being taken by the temple trust and added that temple floors and hand railings are being cleaned and sanitized frequently.

"We have made arrangements for devotees coming for darshan to prevent coronavirus infection. We are asking everyone to take precautions. Every devotee is being provided with a hand sanitizer while entering the temple premises," Bandekar said.

"The temple floors and hand railings are being cleaned and sanitized frequently. The number of devotees has gone down significantly but whoever is coming, we are taking precautions for them," he added.

Meanwhile, the total number of positive cases in India has risen up to 82 and two deaths have been reported so far. 

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Varanasi temple priest puts face masks on deities

In a similar move, a priest of a temple in Varanasi has put face masks on deities and appealed the devotees to not touch the idols.

"Coronavirus has spread across the country. We have put a mask on Lord Vishwanath to raise awareness about coronavirus. Just like we put clothes on the idols when it is cold and put ACs or fans when it's hot, we have put masks on the deities," temple priest Krishna Anand Pandey said last week.

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Coronavirus Outbreak

As of today, the total number of positive cases in India has risen up to 88, with two deaths have been reported in Kalaburagi and West Delhi respectively. 

First detected in Wuhan in December 2019, COVID-19- the novel coronavirus has affected nearly 118 countries in the world. Presently, there are over 1,24,518 confirmed cases of COVID-19 which has led to the death of over 5,000 people. As there is no vaccine or specific antiviral medicine to treat COVID-19, countries have been grappling with all possible mechanisms to contain its spread. So far, China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran have witnessed the most number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.

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(With Inputs from ANI)