Religious places in Maharashtra to reopen on November 16

The Maharashtra government on Saturday said that all religious places in the state will be reopened for devotees from November 16 and wearing of mask will be compulsory.

“All religious places in the state to re-open for devotees from Monday, November 16. Wearing the mask will be compulsory. All Covid norms will have to be followed,” the Government of Maharashtra said in a statement.

The government headed by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has urged citizens to follow social distancing and Covid-19 protocols while entering religious places.

“The decision has come at the right time when the number of corona patients is low. The rules will be the same for all the religious places. The use of masks, sanitizers would be mandatory. Social distancing is very important,” Jayant Patil, Maharashtra minister told reporters.

Thackeray had earlier held discussion with all divisional commissioners and district collectors of the state via video-conferencing over the reopening of places of worship after Diwali festivities are over.

In March, religious places were closed due to the lockdown imposed due to coronavirus disease(Covid-19) pandemic.

Thackeray had earlier said that there has been a delay in opening religious places, as the state is being opened in a phased manner to avoid the second wave .

Maharashtra recorded 4,132 new coronavirus cases on Friday, which took the case tally to 17,40,461, the state health department said.

With 127 fatalities, Covid-19 death toll in the state reached 45,809, it added.

On the other hand, 4,543 patients recovered and were discharged during the day. The total number of recoveries thus rose to 16,09,607.

There are 84,082 active cases in the state.

So far 97,22,961 people have been tested. As many as 58,686 tests were conducted in the state on Friday.

The recovery rate of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra is 92.48 per cent while the fatality rate is 2.63 per cent.