Uttarakhand govt calls off Char Dham Yatra amid COVID fears
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Dehradun: Amid fears of an exponential spike in Covid -19 cases in the country, the Uttarakhand government has on Thursday decided to suspend the Char Dham Yatra for this year. The yatra was scheduled to start on May 14.
"Uttarakhand government has suspended Char Dham Yatra this year in view of COVID-19 situation in the state. Only priests of the four temples will perform rituals and puja," said Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat.
The Chief Minister also clarified that the decision has been taken in view of the rising cases of coronavirus infections in the state.
The Char Dham Yatra commences from Yamunotri, then proceeding to Gangotri and finally to Kedarnath and Badrinath and draws the maximum number of pilgrims every year.
Uttarakhand had recorded 6,054 new COVID-19 cases and 108 deaths on Wednesday. There are 45,383 active COVID-19 cases in the state, while 1,17,221 have recovered, as per the state health department.
Meanwhile, A record single-day rise of around 3.8 lakh cases was reported in the country over the last 24 hours pushing the overall tally to 1,83,76,524 on Thursday.