Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) decided to relax the Covid restrictions for their entry into the holy shrine without the twin-dose vax certificate. The decision has been taken in a Chhattisha Nijog meeting held in Puri following deliberation on the devotees’ sentiments and the current Covid situation.
According to the reports, Chief Administrator of SJTA, Krishan Kumar informed that as the daily Covid cases have gone down considerably and almost all the people have been administered vaccines at least twice, the temple administration decided to relax the curbs.
The Temple was reopened on February 1, 2022 for the devotees after a brief closure of 20 days. As per the SOP released by the Temple administration, all devotees were required to bring their photo ID Card, namely, Aadhaar /Voter ID or any other photo ID card for identification, along with the final certificate for Covid-19 vaccination (of having taken two doses) or Covid-19 negative certificate (RT-PCR) of testing done within 98 hours prior to the visit to the temple.
