Nearly one million people Hindu India expected to gather at the edge Ganges River on Friday and Saturday this week to do ritual annual holy bath.
The religious ritual called Gangasagar Mela takes place in the midst of threats Covid-19 varian Omicron which continues to soar and the increase in corona virus infections.
This sacred ceremony is often held every January 14. Pilgrims visit the village of Gangasagar to bathe together at the confluence of the Ganges River and the Bay of Bengal. They believe doing so can wash away their sins and those of their ancestors.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims are said to have arrived on an island in the eastern state of West Bengal to perform ritual baths in the Ganges River. The area itself is currently the epicenter of the most Covid-19 cases in India after the state of Maharashtra.
“Crowds can swell between 800,000 to a million people. We are trying to implement all Covid-19 protocols,” said Bankim Chandra Hazra, a West Bengal chief minister in charge of organizing the festival known as Gangasagar Mela. Reuters, Tuesday (11/1).
“We have also arranged holy water splashes from drones so there are no crowds, but sadhus (Hindu holy men) are determined to swim. We can’t stop it.”
A major Gangasagar Mela-like religious festival, Kumbh Mela, also took place in northern India last year. The ceremony was also the source of the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19 and the wave of the new corona virus in India.
In response to a request from a doctor who was concerned that the festival could be a moment of rapid Covid-19 transmission, the Calcutta High Court ruled on Tuesday that all pilgrims must undergo a Covid-19 test.
It was not immediately clear how many pilgrims would be tested or whether the decision would be implemented.
Doctors have appealed to the court to overturn the decision to allow the festival to be held this year. Bhramar Mukherjee, professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan, said such associations could risk becoming a ‘disaster’ for society.
Meanwhile, India reported 168,063 positive cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday (11/1). This number has increased by 20 times in one month.
Most of the infected are said to have recovered and hospitalization rates have halved from those seen during the last wave of infections in April and May 2021.
Regarding this contagion, many states have announced the imposition of curfews. This is in line with the capital city of Delhi which also enforces lockdown on weekends and closed private offices, restaurants and bars in an effort to control the Omicron variant which is said to be spreading very quickly.
However, most of the pilgrims do not really care about the dangers of this contagion.
(blq / rds)
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