The Char Dham Yatra has been suspended in view of the coronavirus pandemic in Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat said on Tuesday.

In a tweet, Rawat urged everyone to pray virtually and perform the rituals from home.

The Char Dham Yatra was initially scheduled between May 14 and May 18. However, the Uttarakhand government had postponed the pilgrimage on April 29 due to the massive surge in coronavirus cases.

Rawat had said on April 29 that the gates of the four Himalayan temples – Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri – will open as scheduled. But only priests will be allowed to perform prayers and not devotees. Devotees can visit these shrines virtually from Tuesday.

The Char Dham pilgrimage, which attracts a large number of devotees, begins from Yamunotri, then proceeds to Gangotri and finally to Kedarnath and Badrinath.

The Uttarakhand government’s decision to postpone the pilgrimage for the first time came a day after the Uttarakhand High Court said that the state had become a “laughing stock” by allowing the Kumbh Mela in the midst of a raging pandemic. A week before that, the High Court had said that the Char Dham Yatra could not be a repeat of Kumbh Mela, which led to a sharp rise in infections in the state.

The violation of Covid-19 protocols at the gathering had attracted attention from across the world. However, state authorities, including the chief minister, had tried to downplay the risks.

Uttarakhand has so far reported 2,87,286 coronavirus cases and 4,811 deaths so far. The state has 78,802 active cases.