Panaji, Aug 14 The upcoming festival of Ganesh Chaturthi should be celebrated in a personalised manner on a smaller scale in view of the spike in Covid-19 cases in Goa, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Friday.
Rane also said that not having a grand celebration on the festival does not make anyone less religious or less spiritual and added that at his own home, he had even requested his father to postpone Chaturthi festivities to February if need be.
"I must be the only person coming forward and telling you that this is not the time for celebration. If you want to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi, you can do it in a personalised manner at home. Do not step out too much or you may end up getting Covid yourself," Rane said.
"I have informed my home. My father is 81. At that age one has to be careful. I am speaking about myself. That does not make me less religious or less spiritual. I believe in God and I believe that this is a time for serious business and to deal with a situation like Covid, where the spike is at 570 cases per day on Thursday," he said.
The minister further said that people need to adapt to present-day realities in view of the pandemic.
On August 9, the Goa government had issued SOPs for the festival (scheduled to be held on August 22) which had urged people to not engage in public celebration of the festival as far as possible and avoid visiting others' homes on the occasion.
On Thursday, Goa, India's smallest state, crossed 10,000 confirmed Covid cases.
( With inputs from IANS )