Saturday, 29 May 2021

Kumbh Mela: how a superspreader festival seeded Covid across India

From across India, millions of Hindu pilgrims came to take a ritual dip in the Ganges, then returned home carrying Covid-19. Here are their stories

On 12 April, as India registered another 169,000 new Covid-19 cases to overtake Brazil as the second-worst hit country, three million people gathered on the shores of the Ganges.

They were there, in the ancient city of Haridwar in the state of Uttarakhand, to take a ritual dip in the holy river. The bodies, squashed together in a pack of devotion and religious fervour, paid no visible heed to Covid protocols.

Continue reading...

from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3p3CjId

No comments:

Post a Comment

Taiwan president's Hawaii trip draws Chinese anger

Lai Ching-te's trip to the US state is being billed as a stopover, but has been condemned by Beijing. from BBC News https://ift.tt/Sik...