In response to the ever-growing second wave of COVID-19 infections in India, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has announced that all centrally protected monuments, sites, and museums under the ASI will be close d with immediate effect until May 15, or until further orders.
Following the nationwide lock down in 2020, ASU protected monuments and sites like the Khajuraho temple, Red Fort and Qutb Minar were closed for over 100 days. All monuments and sites maintained by the ASI were closed on March 17. They reopened in July with strict restrictions like mandatory wearing of masks, cap on the number of visitors and social distancing.
The curbs were relaxed later in the year.
There are over 3,000 monuments under the ASI.
In live monuments like Puri Jagannath Temple and Somnath Temple, daily 'puja' will be conducted but no public gathering will be allowed, said Nitin Tripathi, the ministry's media advisor.
On Thursday, India counted over 2 lakh fresh cases, pushing the total tally of cases to 1,40,74,564,while the active cases surpassed the 14-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry.
A total of 2,00,739new COVID-19 cases were registered in a span of 24 hours. The death toll increased to 1,73,123 with 1,038 daily new fatalities, the highest since October 3, 2020 the data updated at 8 am showed.
With over 1 lakh infections per day for the ninth consecutive day, India has added 13,88,515 cases in nine days.
The 1,038 new fatalities include 278 from Maharashtra, 120 from Chhattisgarh, 104 from Delhi, 73 from Gujarat, 67 from Uttar Pradesh, 63from Punjab, 51 from Madhya Pradesh, 38 from Karnataka, 31 from Jharkhand, 29 from Rajasthan,25 from Tamil Nadu, 24 from West Bengal, 22 from Kerala, 21 from Bihar, 18 each from Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, 13 each from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Tamil Nadu has the most ASI monuments in India with 413, followed by Madhya Pradesh (292) and Uttar Pradesh (264).
With inputs from PTI
