Gandhi Jayanti 2020 images: Boy dressed as Mahatma Gandhi goes for COVID-19 test
Ahead of Gandhi Jayanti on Saturday, a ten-year-old boy in Rajkot dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi and went for his COVID-19 test. The boy said, he wants to spread awareness about the importance of getting tested and there is nothing to fear about it. "My swab samples have been taken for coronavirus test. People should not be apprehensive about it. Our country will be healthy only if we cooperate," news agency ANI quoted the boy as saying.
Gujarat's COVID-19 caseload mounted to 1,36,004 on Tuesday with the addition of 1,381 new cases, the state health department said. 11 more people have died. Three patients died in Ahmedabad while two deaths were reported from Vadodara and one in Gandhinagar and Rajkot.
The recovery rate in Gujarat is above 85 per cent, according to the health department.
Several state governments are launching campaigns on Gandhi Jayanti to control COVID-19 cases. The Rajasthan government is starting a 'Jan Andolan' or mass campaign against COVID-19 on October 2. The aim is to tell people about the need to follow health protocols. "Let's make it a people's movement...," the Rajasthan government tweeted.
In Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) will launch a month-long campaign on Gandhi Jayanti for sensitising people in the state on using masks, hand washing, social distancing and following COVID-19 guidelines. BJD President and state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has written to party MPs, MLAs and all office bearers to launch the campaign in their respective areas and distribute masks to people in villages.
The Ministry of AYUSH will also launch sensitising campaigns. The National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN) in Pune, which is under the ministry, will organize a series of webinars on Gandhian philosophy of self reliance through 'Self Health Reliance' on Mahatma Gandhi's 151st birth anniversary. "There will be a special effort to spread the thoughts of Gandhiji on health and well-being, which are of great significance amid the current COVID-19 crisis. Gandhi ji was convinced that self-health is an individual responsibility," the ministry said in a statement.