How Covid Is Turning Eid & Rakhi Virtual

Families and friends in Capital curtail shopping, plan Zoom get-togethers as virus fears alter the way we celebrate festivals

- Chayyanika Nigam and Ajay Kumar

‘HERD IMMUNITY ISN’T AN OPTION’ ‘Herd immunity is developed when there is a vaccine or a population has already suffered and recovered from a disease. Achieving herd immunity in a country as populous as India without a vaccine would come at a great cost,’ Health Ministry said.

14 cops and a priest on duty at Ayodhya’s Ram Janambhoomi complex, where the Ram Temple groundbreaking ceremony is expected to be held on August 5, have tested positive for Covid. PM Narendra Modi is expected to attend the ceremony with 50 VIPs.

SYED Nazish Naqvi, who works at a Delhi-based IT firm, would travel to his home in Lucknow every year two days before Bakri Eid. This time, he chose to leave much earlier for the festival that falls tomorrow.

“Since I was driving, I feared catching the coronavirus on the way. So I decided to keep myself in isolation for a week, at my friend’s place in Lucknow, before joining the family. I did not want my parents to be at any risk because of me,” said the 35-year-old, who lives with his wife and son in South East Delhi’s Abul Fazal Enclave.

Twenty-year-old software engineer Surbhi Sinha has chosen not to visit her paternal house in South Delhi's Greater Kailash, despite the fact that Monday will mark her first Raksha Bandhan after marriage.

Watching online tutorials, she has made four rakhis using tissue paper, thread and colours for his brothers. I have posted immunity booster gift hampers for all my brothers,” said the Dwarka resident.

Nazish and Surbhi are no exceptions. Four months of the Covid-19 pandemic have altered the way people celebrate festivals across communities in Delhi.