Hundreds of thousands of Hindu worshippers bathe in the Ganges River, despite weeks of appeals from medical experts to cancel the holy event and warnings that it would worsen the country’s Covid infection rate.
"There are safe ways to have masked gatherings outside but a mela of this magnitude with everyone taking a holy dip is not feasible to conduct in a safe manner," Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan, told NBC News in an email Wednesday.Sanjay Kanoja / AFP via Getty Images
Devotees nonetheless threw themselves into the waters of the Ganges to mark Makar Sankranti, an important day in the Hindu calendar. The West Bengal Doctors Forum — a group that advocates for the protection of rights of doctors and patients — said in an emailed statement Wednesday that it feared the festival would put further strain on the country’s health care system.
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