As India struggles to control the spread of COVID-19 yet again, the precautionary drill continues. While some states reporting record high cases have imposed strict curbs, the Archeology Survey of India (ASI) on Thursday said that it would shut all protected monuments and museums in the country till May 15. As a result, popular tourist spots such as Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, Red Ford and more will remain shut as a precautionary measure in wake of the COVID-19 spike in the country.
"Due to prevailing Covid situation, it has been decided to close all the centrally protected monuments/ sites and museums under Archaeological Survey of India with immediate effect and till 15 May 2021 or until further orders," said the order issued by NK Pathak, director (monuments), ASI.
The ASI manages and protects 3,691 monuments, which include 143 ticketed sites in the country. The Red Fort in Delhi has been closed since January after samples of dead crows collected from the site tested positive for avian influenza. In Delhi, besides Red Fort, Qutub Minar, and Humayun's Tomb are popular among visitors, witnessing around 10,000 footfalls every day. In view of the COVID-19 spike in the national capital, the decision to temporarily shut the monuments is the need of the hour.
Seeing India had slowly been recovering from COVID, all prominent heritage sites were reopened in September with a limit of the number of visitors allowed. But it was observed that COVID protocols, such as social distancing and face masks, were not followed as these sites witnessed large numbers of visitors, an ASI official was quoted as saying.
Coronavirus spike in India
India has emerged as the worst-hit nation by the latest wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, recording more than two-fold rise in fresh cases with 2,00,739 new infections getting reported on Thursday, as compared to the country's highest previous peak of 97,894 cases recorded on September 17 last year.
Covid-19 cases have been on the rise at an alarming rate for the past fortnight, with India recording over one lakh daily cases for the first time on April 4. Within 10 days, India became the second nation to record over 2 lakh daily cases, as per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
India has been recording more than 1.5 lakh cases a day for five days in a row now. In April this year, India became the second nation after the US to log over 1 lakh daily coronavirus cases, and it also achieved the dubious distinction of crossing the 2 lakh fresh cases-mark within 10 days.
In terms of fresh caseload, Maharashtra is followed by Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, West Bengal and Bihar are the nine states, which recorded their highest ever tally in the last 24 hours.
