Thousands of devotees attend Kumbh at Haridwar amid coronavirus

Haridwar : At one hand the number of coronavirus cases are increasing in India at a massive scale and at the other hand reports of people getting careless is not stopping. In a recent incident, thousands of devotees (some without masks) were seen gathered by the river Ganges in Uttarakhand's Haridwar on Sunday. 

A day ahead of the Shahi Snan - considered to be an auspicious day to take holy dip in the river - more than one lakh devotees were seen on the banks of the river, a clear violation of coronavirus guidelines issued by the Health Ministry.

Several devotees were seen fearless as they claimed that coronavirus is not a big issue because the government has made negative RT-PCR report mandatory for those visiting Haridwar for Kumbh.

Kumbh Mela is observed in a time interval of every 12 years and this time it has arrived at a time when the nation is dealing with the hard situation of coronavirus.

386 people have tested positive in the last 24 hours in Haridwar. There are 2056 active COVID-19 cases in the city. It has witnessed a 100 per cent jump in both the daily and active cases in just a week's time. On April 4, the city recorded 173 cases while the active cases stood at 837.

''It's a very challenging exercise to manage crowds. There are guidelines from the state and the Central governments. SOPs have also been issued to the general public that will be applicable till 30th April which require public to submit negative RT-PCR report, a medical certificate and identity card to generate e-pass to be able to access Haridwar Kumbh area," said IG SK Gunjyal, Mela Police officer.