Many of them did not wear masks and were close together in the place where the sacred rivers Ganges and Yamuna meet in Uttar Pradesh state, TV images showed on Friday. At the important Hindu festival, they want to wash away their sins with the bath and come closer to a state of liberation. All festival participants would have to show negative PCR tests, the local television station NDTV reported. Religion plays an important role for many people in the predominantly Hindu country.
Doctors had previously tried to stop the event in court out of concern for a superspreader event – in vain. About a year ago, just before a violent and deadly delta wave, there was a similar feast with a swim in the Ganges. Recently, the corona numbers in the country had risen sharply again. On Friday, the Ministry of Health in New Delhi reported 264,000 new infections within one day.