Odisha government has issued an advisory for Kumbh Mela participants. The State government on Saturday asked Collectors and Municipal Commissioners to contact all persons from Odisha who have participated in the Kumbh Mela and advise them to get their RT-PCR tests done before boarding train or flight to Odisha. The Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) has shared the list of persons who have registered with Uttarakhand Government for participating In Kumbh Mela, and has asked Collectors and Municipal Commissioners to contact all these persons and find out the location, travel plan and make sure they get their RTPCR test done before boarding train/ flight to Odisha. All of them shall be directed to stay in quarantine for 14 days at home or in Cluster TMCs. If Covid-like symptoms are noticed, the returnees should be immediately attended to, and ASHA and Anganwadi workers must visit them regularly in home / Cluster TMCs and monitor their health condition.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought a curtailment of the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. During his conversation with Swami Awadeshananda Giri over telephone, PM Modi made a suggestion that with the Shahi Snans (rituals baths in the Ganga on specific dates) already over, the rest of the events could be undertaken in a symbolic way.
Swami Awadeshananda Giri, who heads the Juna akhara, later announced that protecting the lives of Indians was more important amid the rising pandemic and that the akhara on Saturday performed the ritual of immersion of deities, which usually happens at the end of the Kumbh.