Visakhapatnam: Mosques continue to witness mass gatherings amid coronavirus scare

Visakhapatnam: Fridays are considered to be auspicious days for the Muslim brethren and their prayer-time too gets longer than usual.

At a time when social distancing is recommended across the globe, mass gatherings have virtually come to a halt, temples, educational institutions, shopping malls and cinema halls have downed their shutters. But mosques continue to remain open for the Muslim brethren amid COVID-19 threat.

While the officials in the city are geared up on a large-scale to tackle the threat posed by the outbreak of coronavirus, with the first corona positive case recorded on Thursday, community transmission, the health officials say, could be tackled by putting an end to mass gatherings as they turn out to be risky at present.

Nearly 100-400 Muslim brothers would visit a mosque on every Friday. The count is comparatively low on other days. In the wake of COVID-19 scare, one cannot rule out the possibility of the virus getting spread during such mass gatherings.

Though the Central and the State governments have been calling for closure the temples across the nation, there is no clarity on the closure of churches and mosques.

Some of the Muslim brethren say that though their personal faith and religious practices are accorded priority, a few of them raise concerns about the virus spread. "We are aware of the coronavirus threat but since our faith overpowers everything else, we continue to visit mosques," said Abdul Rahman, a resident of Gopalapatnam.

With so much at stake, a few opine that it is better to discontinue mass gatherings for a while and resume it when the situation comes back to normalcy. "However, when I checked with the Imam, he convinced me saying that we pray after cleaning our hands and legs which is a quintessential regimen in the wake of the virus threat," reasons Mohammed Iqbal, an employee at a private organisation.