The Ganga Sagar Fair is an annual gathering of Hindu pilgrims on Sagar Island during Makar Sankranti to bathe in the Ganges River’s sacred waters before it reaches the Bay of Bengal. Thousands of Hindus bathed in the Ganges river as they believe they are cleansed of their sins amid soaring Covid-19 cases. Few people were seen wearing masks as part of the current measures in the country to tackle the Omicron variant.

A Hindu man named Ram Phal Tripathi, who came from the state of Uttar Pradesh to bathe in the Ganges with his family, said, “I can’t breathe with the mask. I come here every year to dip in the river. How could I have missed it this year’s Fair?” he said. Last year, there was a significant increase in Covid-19 cases following a religious meeting in the north of the country.