Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 12 (IANS): Amidst devotees' hopes of getting back to pray to their favourite deities, if the famed Sabarimala temple decided on Thursday to cancel the earlier decision to open it to devotees, on Friday Guruvayoor Sree Krishna temple decided to close down from Saturday.

The famed Guruvayoor temple had opened for devotees on Tuesday by hugely restricting the numbers while entry was only through advance booking, but with Thrissur district, where the temple is located, seeing a spike in Covid positive cases the temple administration decided to close the temple for devotees after it closes for the day.

State Devasom Minister Kadakampally Surendran on Friday told the media that the decision of the Guruvayoor administration was in the best interest of all and with Covid cases registering a spike, it would be better to close it. However, all the daily rituals of the temple will take place but with no devotees.

"The marriages that have been booked for Saturday will take place but all other booked marriages will not happen. They were concerned about the increase in positive cases in the district," said Surendran.

Thrissur district currently has the third highest number of positive cases - 150 - and over 21000 people are under observation at homes, corona care centres and hospitals.

Incidentally when it opened for devotees on Tuesday, it was a new experience for them as they were subjected to thermal screening, washing of hands, wearing a mask, standing in a queue observing the social distancing norms. They were asked to register their names before they could enter the temple.