Over 1000 test COVID-19 positive in Kumbh Mela

DEHRADUN: More than 1000 people in the Kumbh Mela site tested positive for COVID-19 between April 10 and 13. The next Shahi Snan (royal dip) will take place today.

Thousands of devotees flocked to Har Ki Pairi in Haridwar on Monday for the second royal bath of the Kumbh Mela, despite increasing coronavirus cases across the country.

According to the sources, over 30 lakh devotees are attending the second shahi snan on Monday (April 12), and 387 COVID cases have been recorded from Haridwar, parts of Dehradun, Pauri and Tehri.

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The festival attracts the world's largest human gathering, with the new mela estimated one million people per day or about five million on the three most auspicious days. The festival is estimated between 100 and 150 million people in total.

According to the Uttarakhand health department, 1,925 new cases were recorded in the state on Tuesday, with 13 deaths. Dehradun district led the table with 775 cases, followed by Haridwar (594), Nainital (217) and Udham Singh Nagar (172), with 13 infected patients dead.

During the ongoing Kumbh, Haridwar is planning another shahi snan on the occasion of “Mesh Sankranti” on Wednesday.

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The Kumbh Mela celebrations coincide with the second wave of COVID-19, which saw India log its highest ever single day spike with 1,84,372 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of COVID cases to 13,873,825 cases.

This is the second highest number of cases ever recorded in a single day by a nation. The United States was the only country to report a higher number of cases in a single day, with 3.09 lakh cases on January 8 this year.

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