India coronavirus Latest news. Prime Minister Narendra modi urged Indians to stay at home at a time when hundreds of thousands of Hindus usually are trying to gather in Ayodhya.
MUMBAI, India. Still India had to fight with very few known cases of coronavirus. And the leaders of the region determined to try to keep everything as it is. On Thursday evening Prime Minister Narendra modi in Prime time before the people called 1.3 billion citizens “to avoid the crowds and stay home.”
“Today what is known as “social distancing”, is very necessary,” said Mr. modi.
Earlier in the day, the authorities announced a one-week ban on incoming international flights from Sunday.
The Prime Minister’s words came at the perfect time in the Northern region of Uttar Pradesh, where the authorities face an urgent task: to persuade hundreds of thousands of Hindus from going up there next week to celebrate the nine-day holiday Frame, one of the most important religious cults.
Pilgrims believe that RAM, also known as Rama was born in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, and from generation to generation they have down there during the celebration of his birthday. This year they are working from 25 March to 2 April, and this time the pilgrims are planning to celebrate the beginning of construction of a new RAM temple in Ayodhya.
Now, according to the government, their faith is faced with a pandemic coronavirus, which has infected in India only 173 people, despite the fact that more than 218 000 people were infected and killed more than 9,000 worldwide.
“We have to stop this crowd to gather,” he told reporters earlier this week chief medical officer Dr. Ayodhya Singh Ghanshyam.
The public health experts argue that large concentrations of people where people can not stay at least six feet from each other, represent a high risk of transmitting the virus.
Religious holidays, said Dr. Singh, come and go, but public health is of paramount importance. “If there is a threat of life, then the holidays will not be”, — he said.
The conflict between religion and health has put before the government of Uttar Pradesh- the largest region of India, which is home to 230 million people is no easy task. Within a few days, the officials tried to dissuade the people from meeting in Ayodhya, without actually taking the politically volatile step of forbidding them to do so.
Siddharth Nath Singh, the Minister of the regional government, which until last August was watching the health problems, said that the government has addressed to the main organiser, the Vishva-Hindu Parishad and other religious leaders to ask them to cancel this year is the devout worship of Rama.
“In matters of faith it is best to convince religious guru, “said Singh in an interview on Thursday. “Already a VP makes a request that people do not come out. They should conduct prayers at home“.
About 80 percent of Indians are Hindus, and the party “Bharatiya Janata”, or the BJP for years gathering the voices of the Indians, promising to build a temple of ay in Ayodhya, where a Muslim mosque stood until, while the Hindu mob destroyed it in 1992. In November last year, the Supreme court allowed decades of legal disputes and gave it to the Indians.
Mr. Adityanath, which was supported by other mass pilgrimage, such as last year’s Kumbh Mela, have to help RAM to start. On Tuesday, before the official beginning of the event, he must take part in the ceremony of transfer of the revered idol of Rama out of the tent in a bullet-proof enclosure near the planned construction site of the new temple.
Late Thursday evening the office Adityanath urged state residents to hold religious services at home to prevent the spread of the virus.
Vinod Bansal, national representative of Vishva Hindu Parishad in new Delhi, said that his group was directly ordered not praying to go to Ayodhya, and “people come there without an invitation around the world.”
“People have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Lord Rama,” he said. “You cannot deprive them of this opportunity. It will be very difficult.”
Anil Purohit, who was involved in public health issues for the government of the United States and founded the School of public health, Jodhpur in Northern India, said he was present at a Hindu event, hosted by the government of Adityanath last year, and commended them precautions.
“Indians love to gather at these great celebrations,” said Mr Purohit, who grew up in India and now lives in Boston. However, according to him, allow the meeting next week is a bad idea.
“This is a serious risk,” he said.
Indeed, epidemiologists say that religious meetings in Malaysia and South Korea have made a significant contribution to the spread of infections in these countries.
Officials in Uttar Pradesh said that the pilgrims who will come will test them with thermomonitoring, will be allocated 100 000 of face masks and 4000 liters of disinfectant for hands, according to Newslaundry, an Indian news site.
John Ioannidis, Professor of medicine and biomedical data Sciences at Stanford University, said that if the festival of Ayodhya will be resolved, the government may consider to ask people to voluntarily monitor and test for the virus a few weeks later.
“We know very little about what is happening with the virus,” he said. “We need data. I am sure that among a million people there are volunteers who want to pass the test.”
But the national appeal to Mr. modi to ensure that all remained at home, it can reduce the flow of pilgrims to a minimum. “I appeal to all of you: in the next few weeks, leave the house only when absolutely necessary, “said the Prime Minister.
Mr. Bansal, a representative of the Vishwa-Hindu Parishad, was hoping for pilgrims from Ayodhya’s all going to be okay.
