HUNDREDS of thousands of pilgrims started packing an island in the Ganges today for a religious festival as Covid-19 cases surge nationwide, prompting fears of a superspreader event.

Officials said they expect as many as three million people – including ash-smeared, dreadlocked ascetics – to take a ritual dip in the holy river tomorrow, the climax of the annual Gangasagar Mela.

The Kumbh Mela, a similarly colossal religious festival that has not been banned by the Hindu nationalist government, was partly blamed for a spike in cases that killed 200,000 last year, according to official tallies, though some experts said the actual toll was several times that.

With coronavirus case numbers once again ballooning, a court last week ruled that the Gangasagar Mela, which takes place on Sagar Island at the mouth of the Ganges in West Bengal, can go ahead.

The state government today appealed to people to get tested for Covid-19, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urging devotees to wear two masks and not “spit on the island, as it spreads the virus”.

As with last year’s Kumbh Mela, this week’s festival is attracting people from across India who, after cramming onto trains, buses and boats to reach the island, will then go home – potentially taking the highly transmissible Omicron with them.

“It is a big challenge to maintain social distancing amid the raging rise of the Covid-19 variant,” said local district magistrate P. Ulganathan.

“There is no doubt that such a gathering, where people are in close proximity, will increase the spread. We are continuously appealing to people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour.”

Amitava Nandy, a virologist from the School of Tropical Medicines in Kolkata, said the government “has neither the facilities nor manpower” to test everyone attending or impose social-distancing norms.

“A stampede-like situation can happen if cops try to enforce social distancing on the river bank,” he said, adding that the festival “may end up being the superspreader of the virus in India”.

Devotee Sarbananda Mishra, 56, who came from neighbouring state Bihar, told AFP that “faith in God will overcome the fear of Covid-19. The bathing will cleanse them of all their sins and bring salvation”.

“Death is the ultimate truth. What is the point of living with fear?” said Mishra, a schoolteacher resting at one of the many camps waiting to go to the festival. – AFP, January 13, 2022.