Amid a rise in COVID-19 cases and the threat posed by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, a Gujarat BJP MLA on Monday shared videos on Facebook of a night cricket tournament organised by his party in which a large part of the crowd could be seen without masks and not adhering to social distancing norms. MLA Saurabh Patel, however, defended himself saying there was no COVID-19 case currently in his constituency Botad, where the tournament was held. He also said the tournament was launched nearly a month ago when the number of cases was negligible.
The videos were of the tournament final played on Saturday between two wards on the ground of a government high school, and in it spectators, many without masks, can be seen running onto the pitch as part of victory celebrations. Former India cricketer Munaf Patel, along with MLA Patel, handed over the tournament trophies. Patel claimed except for the final, few people turned up and all COVID-19 norms were followed during the other matches, adding that 140 teams from his Assembly area took part in the tournament.
”There wasn’t so much crowd in the previous matches. People turned up in large numbers for the final, which was beyond our expectations. We decided to complete the game (so as not to disappoint those who had come),” the MLA said. Gujarat has seen a steady rise in cases in the past few days, with the active tally now standing at 948.
The state’s caseload is 8,29,359, including 10,113 deaths, as on Sunday evening.
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