Dehradun: Ahead of the opening of Chardham Yatra for the residents of 3 districts of Uttarakhand, on instructions of Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat, additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines were made available to inoculate the persons related to the yatra.
The additional vaccines have been given to the districts of Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, along with the districts of Tehri and Pauri, which are on the way of the Char Dham Yatra.
The Chief Minister has also instructed to vaccinate all those who will be in direct contact with pilgrims of the yatra before its commencement, to ensure the safety of both the locals and the visitors.
Guidelines have been issued to the concerned officials to vaccinate the priests, shopkeepers, Dhaba operators, local residents, mule operators, cab drivers, and others associated with the Chardham yatra timely.
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Following the order, 5,000 additional doses each have been provided to the aforementioned districts. However, Uttarkashi received 10,000 additional doses of vaccine.
As Uttarakhand has allowed state residents to undertake the Char Dham Yatra from July 1 amid COVID-19, the state government will be issuing guidelines for the pilgrimage for people from three districts.
Government spokesperson Subodh Uniyal informed these three districts are Chamoli, Uttarkashi, and Rudraprayag. Uniyal also mentioned that the state government will take all necessary steps to follow COVID-19 protocols, and will ensure that priests are vaccinated against COVID-19. The four pilgrimage sites in Uttarakhand are Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri.
This comes as the State Cabinet decided to partially open the Chardham yatra for locals in limited numbers from July 1. Initially, the yatra will be opened for residents of Chamoli, Uttarkashi and Rudraprayag districts with a cap on the number of pilgrims to visit the temples daily.