Police are patrolling the banks of the Ganges river in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh to stop any dumping of corpses in the river, a government official has said. During the past week, the south Asian nation has added about 1.7 million new cases and more than 20,000 deaths in a second wave of Covid-19 infections that has overwhelmed hospitals and medical staff. Some riverside villages did not cremate their dead in line with Hindu tradition during certain periods of religious significance, he added. India reported on Saturday its smallest daily increase in coronavirus infections in nearly three weeks, but deaths stayed near the 4,000-mark, with 3,890 confirmed. In the past 24 hours, India had 326,098 new infections, taking its tally to 24.37 million, while the death toll reached 266,207, health ministry data showed.

Source: The Irish Times May 15, 2021 10:18 UTC