After a three-month shutdown because of Coronavirus, India is going to reopen the Taj Mahal. Tourists must wear mask all time and must maintain social distancing.
Only 5,000 tourists will be permitted to visit per day, they will be split into two groups, a far cry from peak levels of 80,000 a day who would swarm the mausoleum built in Agra. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife, in a 22-year effort.
“All centrally protected monuments & sites shall be bound by the protocols like sanitization, social distancing & other health protocols,” the federal tourism ministry said in a tweet.
Authorities are going to reopen the Taj and other monuments, for example, historic Red Fort of New Delhi, just as India’s coronavirus infections are increasing at the fastest pace in three months.
Today, the health ministry reported a record single-day spike of 24,850 new cases and over 600 deaths, pushing the overall case tally to 673,165, closing in on Russia, the third-most affected country worldwide.
But the government has been lifting a vast lockdown of India’s 1.3 billion people that has left tens of thousands without work and shuttered businesses.
While international flights remain off, domestic travel has been opened up, and the government is hoping visitors will start to trickle back to some popular destinations.
Agra is one of India’s first big clusters of the virus, remains the worst-affected city in Uttar Pradesh.
