The Super Spreaders the Government indulged
If you’ve been living in this world for the past 2 years, I needn’t explain what COVID is. Mass gatherings pose considerable public health challenges to health authorities and governments and can be categorised as super spreader events of covid. A super spreader event occurs when one highly contagious entity infects an unusually high number of others. Historically, sporting events, religious ceremonies, concerts, and other large gatherings have been the source of infectious diseases that have spread globally.
You would think that with the alarming transmission rate of the new and old variants, and the spike in the cases, the government would have had restrictions on mass gatherings. Well, in some cases it did! But, here, the policy isn’t the issue, it’s the execution. Where weddings have restrictions and local clubs are closed, there are a whole other side of things that have been allowed (if not indulged) to run with no care for covid in mind. Here’s a recap of those events of the last year and their anticipated counterparts in 2022.
The Kumbh Mela:
When talking about super spreader events, one cannot ignore ‘The Kumbh Mela’ – a vast festival that rotates among four locations, drawing multitudes of Hindu ascetics, devotees, celebrities, tourists and even royalty. Such a massive assembly of humanity — the event sometimes draws tens of millions of people — has long presented public health challenges. Pilgrims were obliged to present a negative coronavirus test, wear masks, and observe social distancing, but reports indicated that such requirements were flouted. Mr Tirath Singh Rawat, the leader of the state at the time where the time, urged devotees from all over the world to attend. In March 2021, he reportedly said “Nobody will be stopped in the name of covid-19, we are sure the faith in God will overcome the fear of the virus.” A patchwork effort to test, trace and isolate returnees had turned up numerous instances of infections. In the small town of Gyaraspur in central India, 60 of the 83 people who went to the festival tested positive upon their return. While most of those who returned were reluctant to be tested!
At the start of April, when the Kumbh Mela began, Uttrakhand was reporting 500 new cases a day. By the end of the month, that figure had soared to nearly 6,000, with one in five of the doctors and paramedical staff deployed at the festival testing positive. April 17 — after two of the main rituals had concluded — Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to devotees to observe the rest of the festival in a “symbolic” manner to “give strength to India’s fight against the virus.” Mr Modi’s new approach stood in stark contrast to his government’s actions at the start of the pandemic last year. When a gathering of a Muslim missionary group in Delhi emerged as a super spreader event (the Tablighi Jamaat incident), authorities shut down its headquarters and detained thousands of its members — some of them for months — on charges that courts later called spuriously.
Unlike political rallies, the Kumbh Mela drew people from every corner of the country, allowing variants prevalent in one region to jump to different geographies. The Kumbh Mela was by far the biggest of many large gatherings in India if not the biggest super spreader in the history of this pandemic.
The Gangasagar Mela:
Well known as the second biggest pilgrimage gathering in the world, Ganga Sagar Mela is the day when millions of pilgrims from all over the world gather to take a sacred dip in the holy river Ganga. The Calcutta High Court rejected a bid to cancel West Bengal’s Ganga Sagar Mela despite fears that the vast gathering could spread infections as India sees an Omicron surge in cases. After the state government said that it cannot ban the nine-day-long Gangasagar Mela scheduled from January 8 to January 16, which is expected to draw pilgrims in lakhs, the Calcutta high court has given its go-ahead for the event, however, calling for “strict adherence” to COVID-19 norms. But, as we have seen during the Kumbh Mela, even the most basic of guidelines, and requirements can be forged. So, there is little to no doubt that the Gangasagar Mela will also prove to be a super spreader event.
The Assembly Elections (2024):
In the third wave, the number of active cases has crossed 9 lakhs for the first time. The Health Ministry said that during the third wave, 8 states including Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh are troubled, where the positivity rate is very high. But the real concern is about the coming assembly elections. This will be the time when elections will be held in different phases in the five states. Assembly elections are to be held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur. In a country where social distancing is a challenge, and there is no awareness about masks and ventilation, such a situation is worsened with large political rallies, protests, and performances.
Political Rallies:
Indian authorities started to impose stringent rules to prevent mass gatherings at new year's parties and public venues to combat a spike in COVID-19 infections, even as top leaders led large political rallies. Night curfews have been imposed in all major cities and establishments have been ordered to limit customers. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah presided over public rallies in northern states with footage from the events showing thousands of people gathered in open grounds to hear their speeches. An Indian court urged Mr Modi's government to suspend political rallies and election campaigns in poll-bound states amid the rising number of Omicron cases. Elections to the state assembly in Uttar Pradesh, home to over 220 million people, is a key battleground for Mr Modi and opposition parties because of its size and because the performance of political parties there, will be a barometer for the 2024 national elections. Final dates for polls are yet to be declared but all political parties have launched their campaigns, disregarding the social distancing norms which quite ironically, have been introduced by their government.
If this isn’t hypocrisy, I don’t know what is!