In a bid to fight the novel Coronavirus, a group of villagers in Madhya Pradesh’s Agar Malwa district began chanting ‘Bhaag Corona Bhag’ whilst running down around the village with flaming torches in their hand. The incident, which happened on Sunday, came to light when a video went viral on social media. In the video, a few villagers are seen running through the streets brandishing torches whilst crying out ‘bhaag corona bhag’.
According to villagers’ belief, this practice will keep the virus at bay from their village. An elder in the village said that whenever an epidemic breaks out, a person from each household would run with a burning torch in hand to the boundaries of the village, on a Sunday or Wednesday night. These burning torches are then to be thrown outside the village boundary. This practice would save the village, they believe.
According to the elder, although many in the village were suffering from fever, no one has been diagnosed Covid positive yet.
Last year, a video of Union Minister of State Ramdas Athawale, Chinese Consul General in Mumbai Tang Guocai and Buddhist monks chanting "Go corona, go corona" at a prayer meeting went viral on social media. A video of a group of women singing a song in Rajasthan, “Corona bhaag ja (Corona go away)…Corona Bhag Ja Bharat Tharo Kain Kam Re (Corona go way, there’s no work for you here in India)” also went viral last year.
Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus cases in India has reached 314,835. The death toll has increased to 184,657 with a record 2104 new fatalities.
