COVID-19: Huge crowds gather at India's Ganges river to celebrate Hindu festival

Large crowds have gathered along the Ganges river in northern India to mark the annual Gangasagar festival, sparking fears of a super-spreader event. COVID-19 infections in the country have jumped back to record highs amid a fast-spreading Omicron wave.
There are more than 264,000 new infections. This is India's highest daily tally in eight months.
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Officials had said they expected about three million people to attend the festival’s climax on Sagar Island, where the Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal.

Hindus believe a bath in the frigid waters of the holy river during the Makar Sankranti festival, observed every year on January 14, washes away sins and frees them from the cycle of death and rebirth.

On Friday, a large number of devotees were taking a dip in the river in the eastern state of West Bengal, which is reporting the most number of cases in the country after Maharashtra state in the west.
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Indians take holy dip in Ganges River despite Covid tidal wave :
(https://www.ethnologia.info/2022/01/indians-take-holy-dip-in-ganges-river.html)
1. Ethnologia :
(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdVafdu-hqS5ZBbs-ZVtGZTm17a153igr)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOwwiP8tXbM&list=PLdVafdu-hqS5ZBbs-ZVtGZTm17a153igr&index=2)
2. Covid-19 :
(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdVafdu-hqS6DFQOwXgm15Uv63EY5uizE)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOwwiP8tXbM&list=PLdVafdu-hqS6DFQOwXgm15Uv63EY5uizE&index=2)