Ahmedabad- As India continues to face a massive spike in the cases of the novel coronavirus, there was an alarming breach in the COVID-19 protocol which was reported from Ahmedabad's Sanand city on Tuesday.
As per reports, women gathered in thousands to offer their prayers through ritualistic "offering of water" at the Baliyadev Temple in the Navapura village in Sanand, Ahmedabad.
This massive gathering in the midst of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic took place because the local priest attributed the outbreak of the COVID-19 infection as an aftermath of the "wrath of God."
What's ironic here is that thousands of women gathered to perform a pooja to "stop COVID-19" by breaking COVID-19 protocol.
There was music played by a DJ which accompanied the pooja proceedings where women were seen marching as the music was being played in large numbers openly flouting COVID-19 protocols of social distancing and wearing of the face masks in the public domain. Read more
After the news of this incident started making rounds, the Changodar police rushed to the Navapura Village to investigate the matter. The police have taken 23 people in custody in the Navapura village including the village sarpanch. In addition, actions have also been initiated against the DJ playing the music for the pooja procession along with the organizer of the mass gathering.
On Tuesday, the state of Gujarat reported 13,050 fresh cases of COVID-19 taking the total cases in the state to 6,20,472. 131 COVID-19 induced fatalities have been reported in the last 24 hours taking the total death toll in the state to 7,779. Gujarat currently has 1,48,297 active cases of the novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, India reported over 3.82 lakh new cases of the novel coronavirus taking the total tally of cases in the country to hot over 2.06 crores. India has also witnessed the highest single-day spike in the cases of COVID-induced fatalities amounting to 3,780, taking the total death toll to 2,26,188. The active COVID-19 cases in India now amount to over 34.94 lakhs. The massive surge in the cases of this deadly infectious disease continues to exert tremendous pressure on the healthcare infrastructure of the country.