- Sunday, February 23, 2025
By: Pramod Kumar
INDIAN villagers have erected a shrine to “goddess corona” and are offering her prayers in the hope that divine intervention can banish the deadly virus.
Devotees in Shuklapur village, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, have been offering prayers, holy water, and flowers at the bright yellow shrine where they have placed their idol of “Corona Mata”, since they erected it this week.
“Maybe with her blessings the villagers, our village, and everyone else get some relief,” said one villager, who gave her name as Sangeeta.
India was hit hard by a surge of coronavirus infections in April and May but there are signs the worst could be over.
India on Monday (14) reported 70,421 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, the lowest since March 31, data from the health ministry showed.
The South Asian country’s total Covid-19 case load now stands at 29.51 million, while total fatalities are at 374,305, the data showed. India added 3,921 deaths overnight.
The Shuklapur villagers’ prayers have not been fully answered – there are sill some cases in the district – but the numbers are also sharply lower than they were at the height of the pandemic.
