Gorkha, Jan 19 : Worshippers are to be barred to enter into the popular Manakamana Temple in Gorkha from coming Friday. A decision was made to prohibit the entrance into the temple considering the heightened risk of coronavirus infection following the outbreak of its new variant, Omicron.    

Manakamana Area Development Committee chairperson Ramkumar Joshi informed that the decision was taken to bar devotees to offer worship inside the temple after abrupt rise in the caseload of coronavirus. 

The committee’s meeting on Tuesday decided to close all other programme except a routine prayer inside the temple from coming Friday, he shared. “Coronavirus spread rate is increasing day after day”, Joshi said, adding, “The decision was taken to avoid the crowd of worshippers to prevent the potential risk of coronavirus spread”.    

He further informed that the decision was made to stop prayers related activities within the month of Magh (mid-February). The devotees coming to the temple during the duration of closure can only offer prayers from outside the rallying of the temple.    

Temple’s main priest Insan Bahadur Thapa shared that as many as 5,000 devotees are daily turning up the temple for offering prayers.