Kumbha Sankranti 2023: Check date, history, significance and rituals to perform on this day

There is a reason authorities world over are clamping down on gatherings and imposing lockdowns to contain the spread of Covid. Expectedly a huge jump in Covid infections is expected following the Kumbh Mela. Already, up to 40 pilgrims and locals were testing positive every day at the festival in Haridwar. "This positivity rate has the potential to rapidly turning to an upsurge in cases, given the expected large footfall during Kumbh," the Union Health Ministry recently warned.

Recently, the Uttarakhand govt warned pilgrims to abide by Covid rules and maintain social distancing and use masks. However, virus fears have not stopped large crowds of pilgrims from attending the gathering. Very few are also using masks and are not maintaining social distancing, according to news reports.

Some 50,000 rapid antigen tests and 5,000 RT-PCR tests are being carried out every day at the festival. However, the Centre has warned that they are not enough to effectively offset the huge number of expected pilgrim footfall. The state has been advised that the share of RTPCR tests being conducted at present needs to be significantly increased as per the ICMR guidelines to ensure that the pilgrims and local population are appropriately tested.

India has recently seen an upsurge in the number of Covid cases. India recorded 47,262 fresh coronavirus cases in a day, the highest single-day rise so far this year, the Union Health Ministry said on March 24. Though we are still far from the peak of almost 100,000 in September 2020, the numbers are still much higher than 9,000 odd cases in early this February.