India: false tests but real scandal around the Khumb Mela, huge Hindu pilgrimage

The Kumbh Mela Hindu pilgrimage attracts tens of millions of people each year (photo dated 2019).

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In India, authorities discovered that the results of more than 100,000 Covid-19 tests were falsified during the huge Hindu pilgrimage to the Kumbh Mela where more than 7 million people gathered to bathe in the holy river of the Ganges, in the north of the country.

At that time, contaminations were skyrocketing and the regional authorities were forcing pilgrims to be tested.

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From our correspondent in New Delhi,

Sébastien Farcis

Fake phone numbers, fake addresses, and most importantly, fake Covid test serial numbers.

The report from the regional authorities of Uttarakhand is damning.

At least a quarter of the 400,000 tests carried out during the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage have been falsified.

Many irregularities

The hired private agency would sometimes not even have done them: 200 of its sample collectors were in fact students and data operators residing in Rajasthan, 500 km away.

And the authorities, who continue to investigate, fear that these irregularities are even more numerous.

Contamination during ritual baths

Health control therefore proved impossible during this gigantic event of 7 million people last April maintained by the Hindu nationalist government despite the appearance of a second wave of Covid-19 contamination.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims were thus able to be contaminated during ritual baths before returning to their regions of origin, located in the four corners of the country.

► To read also: Covid-19 in India: massive religious gatherings despite the record of contaminations

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