Mumbai's Siddhivinayak temple provides hand sanitisers to devotees to curb coronavirus

As the cases of people infected with coronavirus go up in the country, the Siddhivinayak Ganapati temple here is providing hand sanitisers to devotees coming for 'darshan' as a precautionary measure, Aadesh Bandekar, chairman of the temple's Trust said on Saturday.

"We have made arrangements for devotees coming for darshan to prevent coronavirus infection. We are asking everyone to take precautions. Every devotee is being provided with a hand sanitizer while entering the temple premises," Bandekar said.

"The temple floors and hand railings are being cleaned and sanitized frequently. The number of devotees has gone down significantly but whoever is coming, we are taking precautions for them," he added.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in India rose to 83, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

So far, two deaths due to the lethal infection have been reported in the country.

The coronavirus, which originated in China's Wuhan city in December last year, has so far spread to more than 100 countries, infecting over 1,20,000 people.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared coronavirus a pandemic and Europe as its epicentre with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China.