Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun and neighbouring city Haridwar registered a spike in COVID-19 cases, recording 775 and 594 fresh cases respectively in the last 24 hours taking the state’s tally to 9,353 on Tuesday. This comes at a time Kumbh Mela is being held at Haridwar and thousands of devotees have gathered in the past few weeks to take a holy dip in the Ganges. 

In comparison, Haridwar had recorded 274 cases on Sunday and 408 cases on Monday. Dehradun registered 775 cases on Monday.

Also Read: Lakhs take dip in Ganga on shahi snan amid rising coronavirus cases

The Kumbh mela started on April 1 and the second shahi snan on Somvati Amavasya on April 12, saw a massive gathering of more than half a million people at Haridwar’s Har Ki Pauri.

Thousands of people were seen flouting COVID norms with people not wearing masks and violating the physical distancing guidelines. Even police officials expressed their inability to enforce COVID guidelines.  In videos shared online massive crowds could be seen along the banks of the Ganga.

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Here’s a video of the second shahi snan of Mahakumbh 2021:

Moreover, around 10 seers from Akhada parishad, who had visited Haridwar, have tested positive for COVID-19. These include Mahant Narendra Giri, president of Akhil Bhartiya Akhada Parishad.

The gathering at Haridwar comes amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in India. The country recorded it’s highest daily count of 1.8 lakh cases on Tuesday, with more than 1,000 deaths. 

The Kumbh Mela takes place periodically in four different locations, Haridwar, Ujjain, Prayagraj and Nashik. In the pre-COVID era, the Mela used to run for a whole year but looking at the surging coronavirus cases, it has been reduced to just 30 days this year.