Online booking for Makara Jyothi at Sabarimala opens
The decision about entry of devotees at Sabrimala during the pilgrimage season was taken by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan after a meeting held earlier this month to review the Covid-19 situation in the state.
The online booking for Mandala-Makaravilakku at the famous Sabarimala shrine in Kerala has started. The booking started from Monday, reported Dinamalar and other local publications.
The pilgrimage season of Mandala-Makaravilakku begins from November 16 and only 25,000 devotees will be permitted entry daily during the initial days.
The booking can be made on Sabarimala's official website by uploading relevant details and photographs of the devotees, local media reported.
The decision about entry of devotees during the pilgrimage season was taken by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan after a meeting held earlier this month to review the Covid-19 situation in the state. It was attended by the state ministers of Devasom, transport, forest, health and water resources as well as the state police chief.
The other guidelines for regulating the rush of pilgrims at Sabarimala, which were formulated in the meeting were that the virtual queue system would continue and only those who have taken two vaccine doses or have a negative RT-PCR report would be permitted to enter the shrine.
In the meeting, it was also decided that the Devaswom Board should make arrangements to give 'Neyyabhishekam' (the anointed ghee) to all and devotees would not be allowed to stay at the Sannidhanam after the darshan.
Besides these restrictions, vehicles would only be allowed upto Nilackal and from there KSRTC buses should be used to reach Pampa river where permission for bathing has been granted, the release said.
The chief minister also suggested that devotees who are not Covid-19 positive, but suffer from comorbidities should come for the pilgrimage only after a health check-up.
Kerala recorded 6,996 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to state governemnt's health bulletin on Monday.
The state also recorded 84 Covid-related deaths and 16,576 people recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours. There are 1,01,419 active Covid-19 cases in the state.
The state has been showing a decline in the daily fresh cases after crossing the 30,000-mark post-Onam festival in August.
Meanwhile, Kerala health minister Veena George said on Monday that more than 80 per cent of those above the age of 18 in the state have Covid-19 antibodies, according to the latest sero prevalence study carried out by the LDF government. The minister was answering queries regarding the survey raised in the state assembly.