The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted Belur Math to decide against allowing visitors during Durga Puja this year, breaking with a tradition for the first time since Swami Vivekananda started the festival at the headquarters of Ramakrishna Math and Mission 119 years ago.

Senior monks steering the Belur Math administration decided at a recent meeting that this year the Puja would be held inside the Ramakrishna temple, and not in a pandal on the ground to the east of the temple like in previous years.

This is the first time since 2000 that Durga Puja will be held inside the temple, monks said.

“All rituals of Durga Puja, including the Kumari Puja, will be held as usual. But considering the pandemic, we will not allow visitors inside the Math,” Swami Suvirananda, the general secretary of Ramakrishna Math and Mission, said.

Every year, lakhs of devotees and visitors would turn up during Durga Puja at Belur Math and gather in the huge pandal that would be erected for the occasion.

Belur Math had shut its gates to visitors on March 15 as a precaution against the coronavirus. The gates were reopened on June 15 and visitors were required to undergo a series of checks before they were let in.

But soon thereafter, several monks and employees at the Math tested positive for Covid-19. The administrators again decided to shut the gates to visitors on August 2.

“After remaining open for 45 days, we realised that the arrival of visitors was a principal reason for the spread of the virus” on the Math premises, Swami Suvirananda said. “We have carried out a series of tests since and have taken several precautionary measures. The transmission of the virus at the Math appears to have been contained for now.”

Close to 300 monks and 250 employees live on the campus of Belur Math, which is spread over 40 acres on the Hooghly’s western bank. Senior monks said over 25 monks and at least five employees had contracted the coronavirus over the last few weeks.