‘Covid jabs, pilgrim passes’: How Uttarakhand is prepping for Kumbh

The Haridwar district administration has demanded that 70,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines be made available to immunise the personnel posted on Kumbh Mela duty, district magistrate C Ravishankar said.

With the iconic 'Kumbh Mela' that witnesses a huge number of participants at the Ganga Ghats to begin soon, the Uttarakhand administration has installed cameras with a head-count software that will immediately alert the police if the crowd increases beyond the pre-decided limit due to the coronavirus pandemic, news agency ANI reported on Sunday.

Hindu devotees gather to take a holy dip in the waters of river Ganges to mark "Makar Sankranti" festival in Haridwar. (Reuters Photo )

Following the measurement of the entire area of all the107 Ganga ghats, the police have decided to allow 109,000 people at a time and of them, 20,000 devotees will be permitted to take the holy dip at Har ki Paudi and 10,000 at the Subash Ghat.

The Haridwar district administration has demanded that 70,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines be made available to immunise the personnel posted on Kumbh Mela duty, district magistrate C Ravishankar was quoted as saying.

According to the standard operating procedure (SOP) for Haridwar Kumbh Mela, the state government needs to ensure that healthcare workers and other frontline workers engaged in medical and public health operations during the event are vaccinated on priority.

The central government had earlier instructed the Uttarakhand government to make Covid-19 test mandatory for devotees coming for 'Haridwar Kumbh Mela', along with other standard operating procedures released by the Union ministry of home affairs for mass religious gathering.

According to the Hindu calendar, this time the Mahakumbh began on January 14 on the day of Makar Sankranti and will end on April 30, the government, however, is yet to issue an official notification regarding the dates of the religious fest.