India's daily COVID-19 cases hit a record in the past 24 hours thanks to a "super-spreader" event in the Kumbh Mela that will last for a month. The government won't cancel the festivities.
Thousands take a dip in the Ganges river in the northern city of Haridwar.
While daily COVID cases in the city have jumped to more than 500 since the festival started, the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declined to cancel the festival.
It is believed the government may be concerned about backlash from religious leaders across.
The festival includes a pilgrimage rotating between four sacred rivers and crowded processions as people wash away sins.
On Wednesday, India recorded a record 184,372 confirmed COVID-19 cases - doubling the numbers at the beginning of April.
On the same day, the country passed 1,000 daily deaths for the first time since October.
Local officials in Haridwar reported more than 1,000 people tested positive Monday and Tuesday.
They worshippers who didn't wear masks.
A senior official in the state of Uttarakhan said that the festival "is already a super-spreader because there is no space to test hundreds of thousands in a crammed city." The official added that there was a lack of manpower and health facilities for testing.
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma tweeted the Kumbh Mela festivities were "a corona atom bomb."
