Pilgrims trek up Sabarimala after COVID-19 induced break

Devaswom Minister K. Radhakrishnan, along with top officials of the Travancore Devaswom Board, visited the temple late on Friday and reviewed the arrangements in place

Devotees have begun trekking up the Sabarimala hill once again after a brief gap as the Lord Ayyappa temple opened in Pathanamathitta on July 17 morning for the five-day-long Pooja to mark the onset of Karkidakam. The authorities have made elaborate arrangements for regulating the movement of pilgrims inline with the COVID-19 protocol. As per estimates, just over 16,000 pilgrims have booked slots for darsan through the virtual queue till Friday evening. According to officials, only those producing COVID- 19 negative certificates after undergoing the RT-PCR test within 48 hours or those completed two shots of vaccine have been permitted to trek up the hillock. Earlier in May, the board imposed a ban on the entry of pilgrims to the hill shrine in view of the worsening pandemic situation.