India prepares for Kumbh Mela, world’s largest religious gathering, amid COVID-19 fears
Massive
crowds are expected to gather at India’s northern city of Haridwar throughout
April 2021 for the religious festival of Kumbh Mela, despite the country’s
grappling with a COVID-19 surge. The Kumbh Mela is a Hindu pilgrimage held
every 12 years at sacred tirthas, or river-ford sites, along the Ganges River
in India. This year the government expects over a million pilgrims a day to
bathe in the sacred river and even 5 million people are expected per day on the
most auspicious days – April 12, 14 and 21 – for a total of 100 million
celebrants.
In my
opinion, it’s a terrible idea to organize this pilgrimage considering that
yesterday over 200 thousand Indians got infected. It’s obvious that during
this festival the pilgrims will be praying, eating and bathing, often maskless
and in close proximity with one another, drastically increasing the spread of the virus.
https://theconversation.com/india-prepares-for-kumbh-mela-worlds-largest-religious-gathering-amid-covid-19-fears-158364
As we know from our country, religious authorities and people tend to ignore science and think they are immune to the virus because God will protect them. We'll see.
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