Call to avert acceleration of COVID-19 from India's Sabarimala pilgrimage of 25 million devotees

K Rajasekharan Nayar; Shaffi Fazaludeen Koya; Venkitesh Ramakrishnan; Arathi P Rao; Gnanaseelan Kanakamma Libu; Kanniyan Binub; Althaf Ali; Mansoor C Abdulla; Mahesh Gupthan; Shahul H Ebrahim

doi:10.1093/jtm/taaa153

Call to avert acceleration of COVID-19 from India's Sabarimala pilgrimage of 25 million devotees

J Travel Med. 2020 Dec 23;27(8):taaa153. doi: 10.1093/jtm/taaa153.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Global Institute of Public Health, Thiruvananthapuram, India.
² Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
³ The Hindu Group of Publications, New Delhi, India.
⁴ Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India.
⁵ Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, India.
⁶ Kerala chapter of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, Kerala, India.
⁷ Department of Community Medicine, Malabar Medical College, Kozhikode, India.
⁸ Research Cell, Kerala chapter of Indian Medical Association.
⁹ Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Manjeri, India.
¹⁰ Department of Medicine, MES Medical College, Perinthalmanna, India.
¹¹ Malayala Manorama Publications, Thiruvananthapuram, India.
¹² University of Sciences, Technique and Technology, Bamako, Mali.

Abstract

India has the third-highest COVID-19 burden. Hosting the Sabarimala pilgrimage of an estimated 25 million can compromise the near-mitigated but fragile COVID-19 status of the host State of Kerala, accelerate the ongoing outbreaks in other states of India, and potentially in multiple countries with emigrants from Kerala.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; mass gathering; pandemic; religious pilgrimage; transmission.

MeSH terms

COVID-19 / epidemiology
COVID-19 / prevention & control*
Hinduism*
Humans
India / epidemiology
SARS-CoV-2*
Travel-Related Illness