Skip to content
Hindi News, हिंदी समाचार, Samachar, Breaking News, Latest Khabar – Pratirodh

Hindi News, हिंदी समाचार, Samachar, Breaking News, Latest Khabar – Pratirodh

Primary Menu Hindi News, हिंदी समाचार, Samachar, Breaking News, Latest Khabar – Pratirodh

Hindi News, हिंदी समाचार, Samachar, Breaking News, Latest Khabar – Pratirodh

  • Home
  • Newswires
  • Politics & Society
  • The New Feudals
  • World View
  • Arts And Aesthetics
  • For The Record
  • About Us
  • Featured

‘Super-spreader’ Erupts As Devout Throng Kumbh Mela

Apr 14, 2021 | Pratirodh Bureau

FILE PHOTO: Devotees take a holy dip in the Ganga River during Shahi Snan at the "Kumbh Mela", amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease in Haridwar on April 14, 2021

Hundreds of thousands of ash-smeared ascetics and devout Hindus jostled to take a dip in the Ganges during a religious festival on Wednesday, hoping to wash away their sins, as India reported another record surge in coronavirus infections.

As huge crowds made their way towards the river on a special day of bathing during the weeks-long “Kumbh Mela” festival, health authorities had to pull back a COVID-19 testing crew.

“We have moved away our sampling team to avoid a stampede-like situation,” said S.K. Jha, chief medical officer of the northern city of Haridwar, where the event is being held.

“We do, of course, expect cases to rise when the priests and other crowd move away.”

Police said 650,000 devotees had bathed in the river since Wednesday morning and people were being fined for failing to observe social distancing in some areas.

Infections in the city have already jumped to more than 500 a day since Kumbh Mela, or the pitcher festival, officially began this month, from just 25-30 last month, Jha said. Hotels have become isolation shelters for those found infected by a team of 300 medical staff running 40,000 random tests daily.

India’s new COVID-19 cases hit a record 184,372 in the past 24 hours, more than double the figure at the start of the month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, however, has refused to call off the festival that is scheduled to last the whole month, possibly fearing a backlash from religious leaders in the Hindu-majority country.

“It is already a super-spreader because there is no space to test hundreds of thousands in a crammed city and the government neither has the facilities nor the manpower,” said a senior official in Uttarakhand state, where Haridwar is located.

Devout Hindus believe bathing in the holy Ganges absolves people of sins, and during the Kumbh Mela, it brings salvation from the cycle of life and death.

A short distance from the river, Hotel Sachin International had converted itself into a COVID isolation centre. All 72 rooms were packed with more than 150 patients, a hotel executive said.

“We started taking in patients on April 5, and three days ago all our rooms got filled,” the employee said, declining to be identified because of a gag order from local authorities.

The hotel did not respond to an email seeking comment. A doctor from the region said at least four other hotels have been turned into COVID wards.

“What you are seeing is not Kumbh Mela but it’s a corona atom bomb,” tweeted Indian filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, alongside a picture of a sea of devotees. “I wonder who will be made accountable for this viral explosion.”

Tags: coronavirus, COVID-19, Kumbh Mela, Pratirodh

Continue Reading

Previous Crises Between India, Pak Likely To Intensify: US Intel Report
Next India’s Net-Zero Dream: Between Diplomacy And Reality

More Stories

  • Featured

Zelenskyy Opens Cannes Film Festival, Links War And Cinema

6 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

The Rocky Road To Social Media Independence

6 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Pollution: Over 23.5 Lakh Premature Deaths In India In 2019

20 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau

Recent Posts

  • Zelenskyy Opens Cannes Film Festival, Links War And Cinema
  • The Rocky Road To Social Media Independence
  • Pollution: Over 23.5 Lakh Premature Deaths In India In 2019
  • Rajiv Gandhi Assassination: SC Orders Release Of Convict
  • Not Allowed To Enter Chandigarh, Farmers Sit On Protest Near border
  • ‘Who Are You?’: SC Questions Locus Of Hindu NGO Office Bearer
  • Borne Becomes France’s Second Woman PM
  • India Rejects Pak’s ‘Farcical’ Resolution On J&K
  • ‘Ban On Wheat Exports Anti-Farmer Move’
  • Shivling Claim An Attempt To Create Communal Disharmony: AIMPLB
  • Farmers Turn To Millets To Fight Water Stress, Climate Change
  • BJP Works To Create Divide, Two Indias: Rahul
  • ‘Cryptos Can Lead To Dollarisation Of Economy’
  • Delhi Turns Into Hot Cauldron At 49 Degrees C
  • Ukraine Opens 1st War Crimes Trial Of Captured Russian Soldier
  • Nuking Pakistan Better Than Giving Power To Thieves: Imran Khan
  • Slain Kashmiri Pandit Cremated Amid Protests Against BJP
  • Climate Change Is Making Floods Worse Too
  • Lessons For Ukraine From The Rohingya Crisis
  • ‘Our Mountains Are Gone’: Grief As Sacred New Mexico Forests Burn

Search

Main Links

  • Home
  • Newswires
  • Politics & Society
  • The New Feudals
  • World View
  • Arts And Aesthetics
  • For The Record
  • About Us

Related Stroy

  • Featured

Zelenskyy Opens Cannes Film Festival, Links War And Cinema

6 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

The Rocky Road To Social Media Independence

6 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Pollution: Over 23.5 Lakh Premature Deaths In India In 2019

20 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Rajiv Gandhi Assassination: SC Orders Release Of Convict

21 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Not Allowed To Enter Chandigarh, Farmers Sit On Protest Near border

1 day ago Pratirodh Bureau

Recent Posts

  • Zelenskyy Opens Cannes Film Festival, Links War And Cinema
  • The Rocky Road To Social Media Independence
  • Pollution: Over 23.5 Lakh Premature Deaths In India In 2019
  • Rajiv Gandhi Assassination: SC Orders Release Of Convict
  • Not Allowed To Enter Chandigarh, Farmers Sit On Protest Near border
Copyright © All rights reserved. | CoverNews by AF themes.