Hundreds and thousands of devotees took a holy dip in the river Ganga in India's northern town of Haridwar to mark the Mahashivratri festival, Thursday.
The holy dip kicked off the month-long festival of "Kumbh Mela" that will continue till April 10. The Kumbh Mela is held every four years during which millions of devotees take a holy dip in the river Ganga.
Large gatherings of people, both men and women, were witnessed since morning at the banks of the Ganga river, bathing together with no social distancing norms being followed amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, showed TV reports.
The country is witnessing a fresh spurt in the number of daily COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks. In the past 24 hours a record number of 22,854 new COVID-19 cases, one of the highest this year so far, and 126 deaths were registered across the country.
So far, the country has registered a total of 11,285,561 COVID-19 cases and 158,189 deaths.
