After church leaders in Mizoram and Nagaland, heads of ‘satras’ in Assam have sought divine intervention on July 30 for ridding the earth of the novel coronavirus that claimed 100 human lives in the northeast till July 26 morning.
A ‘satra’ is a monastery of the Vaishnav order that the 16th century saint-scholar Srimanta Sankaradeva had propagated. Assam has some 900 ’satras’ that are central to the Assamese culture.
The heads of at least eight major ‘satras’ and 16 religious organisations, including the apex Assam Satra Mahasabha, have sought 15 minutes of time from the people for praying at their homes on July 30.
“Scientists are working on a vaccine to counter the COVID-19 crisis across the globe. There is no harm in praying for their success and for delivering the earth from this deadly virus,” said Jyotirmoy Prodhani, president of the Mahasabha.
The abbots of the monasteries have chosen 6.45 p.m. as the “auspicious time” for the prayers to start.
On March 28, churches of all denominations across Christian-majority Mizoram organised special prayers after the State recorded two COVID-19 positive cases. The State has so far recorded 361 positive cases, of which 178 are active.
Churches in Nagaland followed suit on April 12, asking followers to offer prayers for the family sunrise service from their homes.
Century of deaths
Three deaths reported in Nagaland on July 25 took the COVID-19 casualty count across the eight northeastern States to 100.
According to the State-wise data uploaded by on the website of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Nagaland is fourth on the list of deaths due to the pandemic. Assam heads the list with 77 dead followed by Tripura with 11, Meghalaya (5), Nagaland (4) and Arunachal Pradesh (3).
At the last count, the northeast comprising eight States recorded a total of 41,054 positive cases with 12,769 of them active.
Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, however, chose to dwell on the “positives” over the past few days – the COVID-19 positive detection rate of an average of 6%.
Various parts of the region have reported community spread of the virus after Guwahati. They include Meghalaya capital Shillong and Thoubal district of Manipur.
Health officials in Assam said the number of positive cases in the State was expected to peak in August.