A priest of the Sri Vaayulingeswra shrine at Sri Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh, located around 40 km from Tirupati, on Tuesday tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting temple authorities to postpone its reopening scheduled for June 12.
Executive Officer of the ancient Shaivite shrine, C Chandrasekhar Reddy told PTI on Tuesday night that the ongoing arrangements being made at the temple complex, following the easing of COVID-19 lockdown norms to allow entry of devotees from this weekend, have now been suspended till further orders from the Andhra Pradesh government.
Meanwhile, with the addition of 216 fresh cases, the COVID-19 tally crossed the 5000-mark in Andhra Pradesh to reach 5,029 on Tuesday, while the death toll increased by two to 77.
The numbers released by the state COVID-19 Command Control Centre indicate that while local cases have been sharply rising, those coming from other states too are carrying the infection.
The latest COVID-19 bulletin said 147 state residents were infected with the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, while another 69 people who came from other states also tested positive. The aggregate COVID-19 cases, thus, touched 5,029, including 132 foreign returnees.
Krishna and Anantapur, two of the hotspot districts in the state, reported one death each in the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 77.
The bulletin said 64 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the cumulative discharges to 2,775 and active cases to 2,177.
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PTI inputs