Many pilgrims were maskless in the huge crowd, who had come for ritual expiatory baths in the river depicting the mother goddess Ganga herself.

Despite the current Covid outbreak blamed on the Omicron variant, a Kolkata court last week allowed the Gangasagar Mela to be held on Sagar Island at the mouth of the Ganges in the eastern state of West Bengal. .

"From dawn there was a sea of ​​people," local official Bankim Hazra said by telephone.

"Sacred water from the Ganges was sprayed by drones on the pilgrims (...) to contain the crowd".

"But the sadhus and a large number of people were still inclined to take the bath... The pilgrims, most of whom did not wear masks, outnumbered the security personnel," the official added.

A police officer at the scene admitted it was "impossible" to impose restrictions on devotees.

A child protects herself from the rain with a plastic bag on during the Hindu festival Gangasagar Mela, on January 14, 2022 in India DIBYANGSHU SARKAR AFP

"Most pilgrims are determined to defy the rules," he said.

"They believe that God will save them and that bathing at the confluence (of the Ganges) will cleanse them of all their sins, including the virus if they are contaminated".

New Delhi, on the other hand, will start a second weekend of curfew on Friday evening and Bombay has banned gatherings of more than four people.

India counted more than 260,000 additional contaminations and 315 deaths in 24 hours on Friday.

At the height of the pandemic, in May, the country of 1.3 billion inhabitants recorded more than 400,000 new infections and some 4,000 deaths per day.

The terrible epidemic wave had swelled following the Kumbh Mela festival, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, which had attracted around 25 million Hindu pilgrims.

These festivities, as well as large political rallies organized in several states, had been denounced by experts.

Pilgrims gathered on Sagar Island for the Hindu festival Gangasagar Mela, January 14, 2022 in India DIBYANGSHU SARKAR AFP

India now seems better prepared to resist Omicron than it was in the spring, when the Delta variant killed more than 200,000 people in a few weeks.

But, according to recent forecasts, contamination could climb to 800,000 cases per day within a few weeks.

© 2022 AFP