COVID protocols flouted at Islamic cleric’s funeral in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun

Despite the maximum number of funeral attendees being set to 20 by the government, an Islamic cleric’s funeral procession on Saturday gathered a large number of his followers in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun.

The Islamic cleric, Qazi Hazrat Abdul Hameed Mohammed Salimul Qadri, passed away on May 8. In a recent video posted on Twitter, hundreds of maskless attendees at his funeral procession can be seen standing in close proximity to each other. 

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The government has imposed a fine of INR 1000 on citizens who are found loitering around in public spaces without a mask, and a hefty fine of INR 10,000 on those who flout the rule twice.

This comes a day after the Uttar Pradesh government extended its ongoing partial ‘corona curfew’ in the state till 7 am on May 17 amid a rise in the state’s daily cases of coronavirus disease.

Earlier, a Rajasthan village of 3,500 people reported 21 deaths in the last 21 days, after a coronavirus patient was buried without protocol.

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The unusually high number of deaths has alerted the state health officials although only four out of the 21 deaths have been officially registered as COVID-19 fatalities.

The sudden spike in deaths in the village has given flight to ‘community spread’ fears. 

According to the Ministry of Health, after four consecutive days of registering four lakh fresh incidents, India reported 3,66,161 new COVID-19 cases on Monday.

The total tally of the nation has been pushed to 2,26,62,575. The death toll now stands at 2,46,116 with 3,754 more people succumbing to it.