The pandemic and India: Pray for the Corona-goddess

In the South of India has built a man with the Virus in a Shrine. Is adorned the sanctuary of a replica of the Coronavirus from Styrofoam, about the size of a football: the "Corona goddess", as the man with the name Anilan from the state of Kerala is called. "In Kerala, there are some temples of a deity for smallpox, a contagious disease," said the man recently in the Indian press. Why shouldn't there be something for the Coronavirus? To pay homage to "a Virus as a deity, is not an unusual custom," said Anilan. In fact, he is not in his home country, the only one who wants to appease the Virus through prayers. An Indian TV report showed several in colorful Sari-dressed women, distributed in the North of the country on the banks of a river, flowers, and candles lit. The aim of their prayers the "Corona Ma", the "mother Corona" is. After the Ritual, the Wind will come and destroy the Virus, said one of the women.

Till Fähnders

Political correspondent for Southeast Asia.

It is not surprising that the fear of the Virus in India so great, that sometimes the power of a deity is attributed to. The subcontinent is increasingly becoming a focal point of the pandemic. Currently, approximately 60,000 new infections are added daily. The are more than in the United States and Brazil, the two countries with the most cases in the world. Since the beginning of the pandemic Hopkins University has been proven, according to Johns-almost 2.4 million Indians Sars-CoV-2. Last Sunday, India had for the first Time, more than 1000 Dead in a day. Meanwhile, some of Bollywood are ill-Stars, hockey players and politicians, such as former President Pranab Mukherjee and interior Minister, Amit Shah.

so it may well be that there is in Hinduism also goddesses, whose specialty is diseases and plagues are. Sometimes, Think and believe in but curious trains, for example, when it comes to methods of protecting against the Virus. So, too, politicians of the government party of Prime Minister Narendra modi, dubious recommendations, such as the Virus with cow urine to be fought against or with the daily five-time singing of a religious hymn. Not hidden remained that the diseased was the interior, the Minister prefer to go to a modern private hospital, instead of one of the government recommended Ayurvedic treatment to undergo.

57 percent of the Slum-infected residents?

Many Indians saw this as an expression of the injustice of your under-funded health system. The country has invested only about two percent of the gross domestic product in this area. Thus, it is at the bottom of the global rankings. "Decades of neglect by a few months Lockdown overcome," wrote two virologists recently in a comment in the "Times of India". To 10,000 inhabitants, only about seven Doctors and 17 nurses were in India, compared to 13.9 and 28.6 in the world. The medical staff is in use, complains about lack of protection. Thus, according to the Indian doctors of 17,000 Doctors and nurses, the Association with the Virus infected, more than 200 died of the consequences.

In the hard-hit mega-cities of Bombay and Delhi was the health system with the beginning of the pandemic pushed to its limit. While the situation is improving slowly, spreading the Virus more and more in smaller cities and regions of the country. The number of unreported cases is likely to be high. A study with antibody tests recently came to the result that could have been infected in the Slums in Bombay, 57 percent of residents. A similar study in Delhi revealed that one out of four inhabitants could already be infected have been. Experts criticize that still too little is being tested. You also assume that the peak of the pandemic in India is far from being achieved.